Viacom signs TV, video content pact with Joost

Media giant Viacom agreed to license television shows and movies to Joost, the new online video distribution channel launched by the founders of Kazaa and Skype, an Associated Press report said.

The report said under the deal, Viacom's MTV, Nickelodeon and BET television networks and its Paramount studios will license shows and movies for the Joost Internet platform.
This comes two weeks after Viacom pulled Comedy Central clips and other content from Google's YouTube online video sharing service, citing copyright concerns, the report said.

Joost, founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, is still in testing.
The service will allow free access to programs and channels in broadcast quality, supported by ads.

The Associated Press report further said the Viacom arrangement marks the first big licensing deal for Joost, which promises to be a 'piracy-proof' distributor of regular episodic content rather than the individual clips that tend to make up YouTube uploads. Much like Skype and Kazaa, which enraged the music industry because it enabled free trading of content, Joost uses peer-to-peer technologies to distribute material.

Joost also uses encryption and other methods to lock content down.