A U.S. appeals court has resurrected a US$1 billion copyright case filed by Viacom against YouTube by sending the case back to trial by a jury.

Eight former staff members of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee are now lobbying on behalf of companies or groups supporting controversial copyright enforcement legislation in Congress, an example of the close ties often found between the political establishment and business interests.

Time Warner has asked a judge to rule on whether it has the right to let customers stream cable content to their iPads, a question that has lit up debate among content providers, cable companies and their customers over the past weeks.

Viacom's $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against Google's video-sharing site YouTube has been dismissed by the court, ending for now an acrimonious legal battle between the companies that has been going on for more than three years.

YouTube's creators walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars after the startup was bought by Google in 2006, according to documents released in a copyright brawl between Viacom and Google.