The complaint was filed with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Viacom accused YouTube of a “brazen disregard” for the law. “YouTube has harnessed technology to willfully infringe copyrights on a huge scale, depriving writers, composers and performers of the rewards they are owed.”

Google responded today, issuing a statement saying it was undaunted by the lawsuit and “confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders.” It added, “We will certainly not let this suit become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube.”

The suit is the latest scuffle between YouTube and Viacom. Last month, Viacom demanded that YouTube remove more than 100,000 clips of its programming. YouTube complied, and in some cases posted a disclaimer that read: “removed at the request of Viacom International” where Viacom material once was.

Viacom said today that nearly 160,000 clips of its programming have been available on YouTube and that they had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times.

Before Viacom ordered YouTube to take down the video, the two had been working toward an agreement. Many of Viacom’s shows like Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and MTV’s stable of reality television programs are highly popular with the YouTube demographic and are potentially worth a large sum if licensed to an online video service. But the two companies have been unable to reach a deal.

Viacom’s suit acknowledges the value of its programming to YouTube, noting that its content “acts as a substantial draw, attracting users to the website.”