Big Media took its first big swing at YouTube Tuesday as Viacom Inc., the owner of MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and other cable networks filed a $1 billion copyright lawsuit against the video-sharing site and corporate owner Google Inc.

The lawsuit marks a sharp escalation of long-simmering tensions between Viacom and YouTube and represents the biggest confrontation to date between a major media company and the hugely popular site, which Google bought in November for $1.76 billion.

The question remains if the Internet will remain a truly revolutionary invention that forces us to re-think the traditional parameters of IP, or if it will simply devolve into another Pay-Per-View medium for media conglomerates to control. Actually, it isn't even just the conglomerates.

[Update]: Lessig has some good analysis about this - along with a link to the actual complaint.