May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Viacom Inc. was ``forced into'' filing a copyright lawsuit against Google Inc., owner of the YouTube video-sharing Web site, Viacom Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman said.

Viacom, owner of MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures, is a ``reluctant plaintiff'' and tried to reach an agreement that would allow YouTube to carry its content, Dauman said today at the cable-television industry's annual conference in Las Vegas. Copyright protection is an ``important issue,'' Dauman said.

The company filed suit in federal court in New York in March, seeking $1 billion in damages from Google, the most-used Internet search engine. Almost 160,000 clips of Viacom shows such as ``South Park'' and ``The Colbert Report'' were posted on YouTube without permission, Viacom says.

Google rejected Viacom's claims in court filings, saying online services are exempt from allegations stemming from the actions of its customers under a federal copyright law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA. It says it also removes any copyrighted works when it receives complaints.

Google, which bought YouTube for $1.65 billion last year, negotiated more than 1,000 partnerships with companies including Sony BMG Music Entertainment and the National Basketball Association to make videos available on YouTube, spokesman Ricardo Reyes said today.

``Those negotiations do not affect our rights under the DMCA,'' Reyes said in an e-mailed statement. ``We comply with our legal obligations and will defend our rights against challenges like those raised in this lawsuit.''

Three Suits

There are three lawsuits against YouTube over allegedly improper postings, including the one by New York-based Viacom. The most recent was filed last week in New York by England's premier soccer league and an independent music publisher that owns the rights to the late comedian Jimmy Durante's ``Inka Dinka Doo'' song and the instrumental ``Popcorn'' song that was a hit in 1972 by the group Hot Butter.

Robert Tur, who videotaped the beating of trucker Reginald Denny during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, sued YouTube last year, before it was bought by Google. YouTube is seeking a ruling that it is protected from liability under the DMCA. A hearing on the issued is scheduled for May 21 in federal court in Los Angeles.

Shares of New York-based Viacom fell 37 cents to $41.57 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They've climbed 1.4 percent this year. Google, based in Mountain View, California, fell 46 cents to $466.81 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading and has risen 1.4 percent this year.

The suit is Viacom International Inc. v. YouTube Inc., 07cv2103, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The other suits are The Football Association Premier League Limited v. YouTube Inc., 07cv03582, also in New York; and Robert Tur v. YouTube Inc., 06cv4436, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cecile Daurat in Las Vegas at cdaurat@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 8, 2007 20:13 EDT