Viacom denied extra claim in Google suit

A federal judge has denied Viacom's bid to add punitive damages to its $1 billion (£500 million) copyright lawsuit against Google.

Last March, Viacom sued online video-sharing site Google and its subsidiary YouTube, for copyright infringement relating to almost 160,000 unauthorised video clips on YouTube.

In a ruling dated 7 March, but released this week, Judge Louis Stanton of the Southern District Court of New York, denied Viacom's request. He said common law punitive damages simply can't be recovered in copyright actions.

Punitive damages are intended to punish a defendant and discourage the type of conduct the defendant is alleged to have engaged in.

Google had argued against the move - an argument ultimately upheld by the judge.