Viacom Inc.

The Viacom-Google battle over YouTube's alleged copyright infringement has been going on mostly behind the scenes for years. But court documents made public this week shed some light on the unfolding drama.

Viacom filed suit against Google in 2007 for allegedly allowing users to upload more than 100,000 videos clips containing copyrighted Viacom content, including parts of shows from MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon. The suit, which seeks $1 billion in damages, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

A back-and-forth battle is brewing between Internet search giant Google and media giant Viacom. Both companies are taking aggressive legal shots against each other after Viacom filed a copyright claim against Google's YouTube service.

Google has fired back, saying Viacom illegally uploaded videos to YouTube, according to documents filed with U.S. District Court in New York.

Score one for Hollywood. RealNetworks agreed this week to settle lawsuits with major movie and TV studios for its RealDVD product, which allows users to copy DVDs onto hard drives.

As part of the settlement, RealNetworks will pay the studios $4.5 million to cover legal costs. In its announcement, RealNetworks said all parties have agreed to the "terms of a permanent injunction that will prohibit RealNetworks from distributing or supporting RealDVD or any other technology that enables the duplication of copyrighted content protected by the Content Scramble System, ArccOS or RipGuard."

Score one for Hollywood. RealNetworks agreed this week to settle lawsuits with major movie and TV studios for its RealDVD product, which allows users to copy DVDs onto hard drives.

As part of the settlement, RealNetworks will pay the studios $4.5 million to cover legal costs. In its announcement, RealNetworks said all parties have agree to the "terms of a permanent injunction that will prohibit RealNetworks from distributing or supporting RealDVD or any other technology that enables the duplication of copyrighted content protected by the Content Scramble System, ArccOS or RipGuard."

As Google outlines a smartphone strategy that puts the search giant in direct competition with Apple, the iPhone maker has struck a deal that may tread on Google's turf. Apple has acquired Quattro Wireless, according to a blog posting on Quattro's web site Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal's D:All Things Digital blog valued the acquisition at $275 million. The move positions Apple as another hurdle in Google's moves to become the dominant player in mobile advertising.

Movieclips.com, an online movie clip-sharing service, launched in beta test mode on Wednesday touting the cooperation of six major Hollywood studios amid an industrywide slowdown in DVD sales.

The founders and private backers aim to make movie clips searchable and sharable and earn referral fees for viewers who go on to buy or rent movies via links that lead to Amazon.com or Apple Inc.'s iTunes.

After exiting the beta period, the company also hopes to put advertisements over the bottom third of the clips and share ad revenue with the studios.

When entrepreneur Mike Cassidy wanted a meeting with Google's top brass recently, he knew who to call. Cassidy was advising a startup that was in talks to be sold to Google and he turned to David Lawee, Google's head of corporate development. Within three hours, Lawee had convened a sit-down that included one of Google's three highest-ranking executives.

Viacom Inc. struck a hopeful note on advertising for the rest of the year even as the media conglomerate controlled by Sumner Redstone saw second-quarter profit plunge on weak ad markets, video game sales and box-office returns.

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said the company, which owns the BET and MTV cable TV networks, was "very pleased" with the nearly completed bidding in the so-called "upfronts," in which media buyers bid on commercial time ahead of the coming TV season.

Raptr, a social network targeting gamers, is hoping to make it easier to see what your friends are currently playing on a broad range of platforms such as the Xbox 360 and personal computers.

And if you want, you can join them in the action.

On Wednesday, Raptr launched new software that integrates various instant-messaging services, as well as Twitter and Facebook, and automatically updates users' status with the games they are currently playing.

Several years ago, when online video was beginning to really catch on, a startup named Joost was among the hottest new sites. On Tuesday, however, Joost announced it will "reorganize and restructure its business," wind down some operations, and focus on providing "white label online video platforms" to media companies.