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One tech giant settled a legal spat this week, while others are just warming up.

Court filings released recently in the bitter $1 billion copyright fight between Viacom and Google's YouTube show just how far apart the companies remain, as the 3-year-old case winds through federal court.

Viacom, in 108 pages of court documents, portrays YouTube's founders as reckless copyright violators who were far more concerned with increasing traffic to their site than obeying the law. Even executives at Google, which acquired YouTube for $1.7 billion in October 2006, questioned the ethics of building a site through … Read more

Viacom, parent company of BET, MTV and Paramount Pictures issued a statement Thursday following the release of hundreds of documents regarding the company's copyright complaint against Google. The full text of the statement is below. Go here for the full story about what was revealed.

YouTube was intentionally built on infringement and there are countless internal YouTube communications demonstrating that YouTube's founders and its employees intended to profit from that infringement. By their own admission, the site contained "truckloads" of infringing content and founder Steve Chen explained that YouTube needed to "steal" videos because … Read more

Viacom and Google are airing their dirty laundry in court documents unsealed Thursday, revealing some noteworthy behind-the-scenes information in the copyright battle. That, and other news of the day, including a Kindle app for Mac and a safe touchdown for ISS crew members.

Today's stories:

Viacom, Google air dirty laundry in court docs

HTC fires back at Apple patent complaint

Apple director Jerry York, 71, dies

Amazon releases Kindle app beta for Mac

Microsoft nixes barrier to Windows 7's 'XP mode'

Soyuz capsule brings back space station fliers

Chip spending could reach double-digit growth this year

Report: USB mass storage coming to Xbox 360… Read more

With the release of hundreds of pages of court documents in the legal dispute between Google and Viacom over the presence of copyright material on YouTube, Google has released a statement on the case. It follows below in its entirety. See this CNET story for more background on the case and check back later for new information as the documents are studied.

The statement was attributed to Zahavah Levine, YouTube chief counsel.

Broadcast yourself Around the globe, YouTube has become a metaphor for the democratizing power of the Internet and information. YouTube gives unknown performers, filmmakers, and artists new ways … Read more

Court filings released on Thursday in the bitter $1 billion copyright fight between Viacom and Google's YouTube show just how far apart the companies remain, as the 3-year-old case winds through federal court.

Viacom, in 108 pages of court documents, portrays YouTube's founders as reckless copyright violators who were far more concerned with increasing traffic to their site than obeying the law. Even executives at Google, which acquired YouTube for $1.7 billion in October 2006, questioned the ethics of building a site through questionable copyright practices, according to the Viacom filings.

But in the 100-page document filed … Read more

The copyright showdown between Google and Viacom, parent company of Paramount and MTV, is finally about to start playing out before the public.

Expect fireworks.

Viacom filed a $1 billion copyright complaint three years ago against Google, accusing the search engine of profiting from and encouraging copyright infringement on YouTube. Google denied the allegations and said the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects the company and all Internet service providers from liability for infringing activity by users. On Thursday, we'll get to see what kind of documentation the two companies possess to support their claims.

Sources close to the case … Read more

The judge overseeing the copyright fight between Viacom and Google doesn't want to wait to give the public access to the documents in the case.

U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton has denied Google's Friday request to wait until June and ordered the companies to figure out which information is too sensitive to release, such as trade secrets, within 10 days of filing. Stanton said everything else will be open to the public. Peter Kafka over at All Things Digital was first to report the news.

For three years, most of the information in the case has not … Read more

Google, the search company that uncovers much of the world's information for its customers, is embroiled in a fight to keep information about itself under wraps for at least a while longer.

The owner of YouTube, which is defending itself against a $1 billion copyright lawsuit filed by entertainment giant Viacom, has asked a federal court to keep documents filed in the case under seal for another three months.

On Friday, Viacom and Google filed for summary judgment, claiming that there's enough undisputed evidence for the judge to rule in each party's favor. Supporting documents were also … Read more

The copyright fight being waged by Viacom against Google will move into a crucial stage on Friday.

According to documents filed in federal court on Thursday, both companies are expected to file motions for summary judgment--when a judge decides enough undisputed evidence exists for a ruling to be made without sending the case to trial.

In addition to Viacom and Google, a group of copyright owners that also sued Google for copyright infringement in 2007 is expected to file for summary judgment as well. What this means is that the time of taking depositions and exchanging documents is over. The … Read more