Viacom's Billion-Dollar Lawsuit Against Google Has Been Settled

Viacom's lawsuit against Google, which has been in and out of the court for seven years now, is finally over. As with most things tech, in just a few short years it's far exceeded its shelf life.

Viacom's lawsuit against Google, which has been in and out of the court for seven years now, is finally over. As with most things tech, in just a few short years it's far exceeded its shelf life.

In 2007, Viacom sued YouTube's parent company, Google, for copyright infringement. Viacom was looking for over $1 billion in damages. Back then, the New York Times called it "the most aggressive move so far by an old-line media company against the highly popular but legally questionable practice of posting copyrighted media content online."

Three years later, in 2010, a judge ruled in Google's favor, saying that YouTube took copyrighted material down as soon as it was notified of its presence, as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. There were appeals and another ruling Google's favor in 2013, and then more appeals. The companies had a court date scheduled for next Monday.

Today, they decided to settle the case out of court once and for all. Re/Code reports that no money traded hands in the agreement, which is far short of the $1 billion Viacom once hoped for. At this point, "old-line media companies" are eagerly working with YouTube to show their content -- Viacom included. And they get a cut of the ad money.

Re/Code reporter Peter Kafka also noted that Viacom's CEO's son actually works for Google now, to which the son tweeted: "Finally I can go home for Thanksgiving this year! Just kidding--had almost forgotten the suit was still on."