Viacom's lawsuit against Google for copyright infringement probably will be withdrawn when Google blinks and offers Viacom a major portion of the ad dollars it brings in hosting Viacom content.

But on the off chance that the case makes it to trial and Viacom wins, Google should argue that any damages get reduced by the value of the traffic Google has sent Viacom's way, not to mention the brand awareness Google has helped foster for Viacom by presenting Viacom programming that users have uploaded to YouTube.

My guess is that if the calculations are made, Viacom will come out owing Google money for all the marketing exposure it has provided.