Devoted to show business and the entertainment industry

In what looks like a warning shot by Viacom (VIA-B) toward YouTube (GOOG), the company let them know that they wanted over 100,000 video clips removed from the site. This isn't unprecedented as the Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers made a similar request last November concerning 30,000 clips that were removed for copyright infringement.

In what isn't an unexpected comment, the company said in a statement that "it has become clear that YouTube is unwilling to come to a fair market agreement that would make Viacom content available to YouTube users."

With a number of media companies, including Viacom via MTV, reaching licensing deals with Google last year for revenue sharing, this seems like it's directed toward the filtering tool promised by YouTube but which is already a month behind the date it was to be implemented.

While federal copyright law does allow protection from companies if they respond to takedown request, there is a grey area on what happens when they're uploaded again by another user, a continuous practice on YouTube.

On Viacom's part, maybe this is also connected to their not having agreements in place for their other properties outside of MTV like VH1, Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures. It could simply be a move to get YouTube into negotiations and get those properties into revenue-sharing on the site as well.

It seems that the longer it takes for the filters to be put in place, the more agitated big media companies will get. Having the uploaded content on the site without agreements in place takes away some of YouTube's motivation to get deals done.