YouTube being sued is nothing new. It actually seems like it occurs everyday. However, the Viacom case is possibly the biggest and riskiest case for both Google and YouTube. What exactly are they suing them for? Not much, only $1 billion for copyright damages. Now you’re starting to get the picture.

The case is old, three years old to be exact, but it may finally go to trial this year. Viacom argues that YouTube encouraged its users to upload unauthorized video and film clips. However, YouTube and Google argue that Viacom’s employees may have uploaded said clips as well.

Which employees exactly? Stephen Colbert, John Stewart, the creators of South Park just to name a few. Google’s argument is that there is no way to determine which clips were pirated and which ones were uploaded with Viacom’s blessing. Recently, there’s been news that Google’s attorneys have received depositions from Viacom’s employees.

Colbert, while at last month’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of Second City (a comedy group), acknowledged giving a deposition. However, his deposition sounded a little unorthodox. He told the gathering of comedians there was some confusion about whether he was answering questions as himself or as the character he plays on the show.

“The whole deposition was in front of two people,” Colbert explained to the crowd, “I had a coffee cup, and I would move it side to side to differentiate who I was answering for. It was insane.”

Creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Stewart also has given a deposition to Google’s attorneys. However, Stone and Parker (creators of South Park) were not required to. Instead, they were supposed to turn over documents, which they have yet to do. Google wasn’t very amused which led to a letter to U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton.

The attorneys asked the court to force Stone and Park to produce the requested documents. A representative for the two said, “We intend to comply with the court order and produce the requested documents in a timely way.”

As you can imagine, this court case will only get more interesting as the trail gets closer. Do you believe that Viacom has a case, or do you believe that they’re trying to bully YouTube over something that was out of their control?