YouTube ... has begun removing more than 100,000 unauthorized clips belonging to Viacom – everything from snippets of Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” to Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants.
News Corp., Viacom, and NBC Universal are threatening to seek damages of $150,000 for every copyrighted video posted, apparently in an attempt to pressure the site into offering them more favorable revenue-sharing deals.