Google & Viacom settle longstanding YouTube lawsuit

Cable network Viacom has reached an agreement to end a longstanding copyright infringement lawsuit against Google, the companies announced today.

Viacom first filed a suit against the search giant due to its content popping up on Google-owned YouTube way back in 2007. While Viacom appears to have reached a settlement outside of court, the company didn’t elaborate on the details.

“This settlement reflects the growing collaborative dialogue between our two companies on important opportunities, and we look forward to working more closely together,” Viacom wrote in a statement.

Viacom, which is the parent company of Paramount Pictures, MTV, Comedy Central, and dozens of other cable channels, had sought upwards of $1 billion in damages from Google at one point. Google was dealt a relative win thanks to a 2010 federal ruling establishing that YouTube was protected under the “safe harbor” provision of US copyright law (and thus protected from liability provided it removes infringing content as requested by copyright holders).

We’re reaching out to both Viacom and Google for further details and will update this post with any new information about the settlement deal.