By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press

NEW YORK - A $1 billion lawsuit over YouTube's ability to keep copyrighted material off its video-
sharing site threatens the way people exchange information on the Internet, owner Google Inc. said.

Lawyers filed papers in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, responding to Viacom Inc.'s latest lawsuit alleging that the Internet has led to "an explosion of copyright infringement" by YouTube and others.

The back-and-forth between the companies has intensified since Viacom brought its lawsuit last year, saying it was owed damages for the unauthorized viewing of its programming from MTV, Comedy Central and other networks.

In papers submitted Friday, Google said YouTube "goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content owners to protect their works."

It said Viacom "threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and artistic expression."

Google said YouTube is faithful to the requirements of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

On that score, Viacom says Google has set a terrible example.

In a rewritten lawsuit filed last month, Viacom said YouTube consistently allows unauthorized copies of popular television programming and movies to be posted and viewed tens of thousands of times.

Viacom said it had identified more than 150,000 unauthorized clips of copyrighted programming that had been viewed "an astounding 1.5 billion times" and that Google did "little or nothing" to stop infringement.

"To the contrary," Viacom said, "the availability on the YouTube site of a vast library of the copyrighted works of plaintiffs and others is the cornerstone of defendants' business plan."