Viacom

I'm a big advocate of the video site Hulu, which streams movies and TV shows for free (they are commercial-supported). But there's still a huge list of shows, like The Hills, that aren't available on Hulu. The website Sling — brought to you by the masterminds of the SlingPlayer — is adding Viacom Shows (like The Hills) to its full streaming lineup. Viacom shows that were exclusively on Hulu like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will also be available on Sling too. I know I know, The Hills is available online via MTV, but the Sling video player is so much prettier.

• The Terminator will be added to the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. — Zap2It
• Unless a deal is struck today, Time Warner Cable subscribers will lose Viacom channels (MTV, Comedy Central, etc.) just after midnight tonight. — Variety
• Fox is looking to delay the release of Watchmen. — Reuters
• Funny Games star Michael Pitt has been cast in Martin Scorsese's HBO pilot, Boardwalk Empire. — The Hollywood Reporter
• Duffy topped the British album charts in 2008 with Rockferry. — Reuters
• Meanwhile, Lil Wayne finished atop the US year-end charts. — Billboard
• Brothers and Sisters may be going down one brother. — Entertainment Weekly

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If you've ever checked out YouTube clips from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report (among many others), your information may soon be released to Viacom — they've been granted access to private user data to find out how many people are watching!

Part of a copyright infringement lawsuit, Google was ordered to release the deets about how many times copyrighted clips are played, and who's watching to determine if damages are owed to Viacom.

Viacom claims that Google knew about the infringements and could do more to stop it. Although the Goog was opposed to handing over the 12 terabytes of data (that's a lot), saying that info should be kept private, Viacom assures us that they will proceed with caution. Here's more:

Any data provided will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against YouTube and Google (and) will be handled subject to a court protective order and in a highly confidential manner.

Thoughts of anonymity and identity theft come to my paranoid mind when companies are forced to hand over user information, but does this case make you think twice before using YouTube if your info and viewing history (no matter how delicately handled) are available for others to see? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.

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The Daily Show's Demetri Martin reports on the current legal dispute between Viacom and Google. Yadda, yawn, yadda. But the paper dolls and t-shirt backdrop set it all up nicely, which is why this is the best reporting I've encountered in a while. So sit back and let DJ Demetri breaka-break this shizzle down for you.

Viacom (my old fabulous employers) are suing one of my new favorite companies, YouTube. We all know YouTube is worth billions now that they are part of Google's family and Viacom owner Sumner Redstone is not taking it lightly that they are making money off many of his network's programs. In fact, today Viacom announced they are suing the video site for more than $1 billion!!! Hopefully they can all figure out this mess since we need a place to find all TV's best moments along with all the cute home videos. Finally, in case you missed it - watch Tom Cruise trapped in the closet on South Park one last time before it's removed!