Back
Back from Thailand.  Less scuba and instead mostly rock climbing in Tonsai, near Krabi, which I recommend.
Came back to Viacom’s suit against Google is interesting. One interesting thing is the risk to Viacom posed by its lawsuit. Since Viacom’s competitors aren’t on board, the lawsuit poses risks.  Viacom’s properties probably couldn’t set up a competitive Youtube site to save their life — have you seen how bad comedy central’s video site is?  So one risk to Viacom is of Youtube actually beginning to screen all of their content, while leaving up its competitors who make deals.
For that reason I suspect like others that the point of the lawsuit is to negotiate a better share of advertising revenue than other companies are managing to get.  Unless Viacom really thinks it can compete with Youtube in the video space. Companies sometimes become self-deluded like that, but I suspect Viacom knows better. Alternatively Viacom may just want to keep its content only on medium it controls well, like TV, where at least you see the commercials flash by as you use Tivo, or perhaps cell phones.