YouTube to Take Down Viacom Videos

Viacom has told YouTube to take down 100,000 or so unauthorized clips of Viacom properties,including MTV and Comedy Central.  The two companies were working on a deal but the talks apparently broke down.  YouTube did not cite a timetable in removing the links.  As of this writing, these links from Stephen Colbert (Comedy Central is a Viacom property) covering various tech topics were still online:  the Apple iPhone, the Nintendo Wii, and the AT&T Merger. 

YouTube said in a statement that it is regrettable that Viacom will not get the benefit of exposure on their site.  Viacom says that their videos are streamed to the tune of 1.2 billion times since they've been up.  One man's copyright violation is another man's business plan.  It all comes down to money.  Watch this get settled before there is a court case or worse:  the videos taken down from YouTube.

More on this in CNN Money.