U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton denied Viacom’s (VIAb) request to amend its complaint against Google to add a claim for punitive damages. The judge said that common law punitive damages cannot be recovered under the Copyright Act.

Viacom has files a $1 billion frivolous lawsuit against Google’s YouTube which is an online video sharing service. Eric Schmidt has previously said that, “Viacom is a company built on lawsuits … look at their history”. Schmidt also pointed to the fact that Viacom was currently being run by a former general counsel of the company, Philippe Dauman. The company founder has gone on record saying “We have engaged in a lot of litigation at Viacom, of which I have been a primary mover.”

Litigation has become the cornerstone of Viacom’s business model. Viacom is getting squeezed by content producers and distributors. The traditional distrubtion channel for Viacom’s product is shrinking. Users’ are moving to more targeted and personalized mediums on the internet eg. YouTube. Technology has lowered the cost of production of content and there is more choice that ever and more competition for eyeballs. Viacom’s is still operating under an old production and distribution structure which is bleeding the company. So the easiest thing to do is to blank others for your problems. Frankly, Viacom should be happy that users’ are keeping its products alive by putting it on YouTube and introducing it to new audiences, who might end up watching it on TV thanks to YouTube.