With both companies seeking a summary judgment in their favor from Judge Louis Stanton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Google and Viacom rushed to make their case before the public with strongly worded statements.

Zahavah Levine, YouTube's chief counsel, struck an apocalyptic note for all fans of online video. "YouTube and sites like it will cease to exist in their current form if Viacom and others have their way in their lawsuits against YouTube," she in an official blog post.

Viacom, for its part, pulled no punches in an e-mailed statement: "Google bought YouTube because it was a haven of infringement," the statement reads. "Instead of complying with the law, Google willfully and knowingly chose to continue YouTube's illegal practices."

The spat dates back to March 2007, when Viacom slapped Google with a US$1 billion lawsuit over what it described as widespread and willful infringement of Viacom's movies, TV shows and other content on YouTube.

Google, which acquired YouTube in October 2006 for US$1.65 billion, has maintained as its defense that YouTube complies with the requirements in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to remove infringing material upon owners' requests.