The comments come on the heels of a $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube owner Google charging it with "brazen disregard of intellectual property laws." Viacom's beef: More than 160,000 clips posted on YouTube from The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, South Park, The Colbert Report and other Viacom-owned programs violate Viacom's copyrights, and Google has not done enough to prevent such infringement.

Online copyright disputes are a feature of the internet, but few have attracted as much attention as last week's showdown. What makes this case special, legal experts say, is Viacom's aggressive legal arguments. If the case proceeds to trial and results in a ruling favoring the cable operator, it could substantially raise the risks for companies that publish content of any kind online.