YouTube's big court fight with Viacom is unearthing some fun stories, like this one: Viacom secretly doctored its content to look stolen, uploaded it to YouTube, and then promptly reported itself for copyright abuse, having forgotten about its own ruse.

That's according to an entertaining little blog entry that YouTube owner Google published today, following the release of court documents . The post claims Viacom hired 18 different marketing agencies to upload video and even sent employees to Kinko's so they couldn't be traced. Viacom eventually lost track of its own leaks, said Google: "On countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement." Now Viacom is suing for copyright infringement — in part based on clips it uploaded itself, says Google. Ya, but Sumner Redstone probably fired that guy already, and plus he really needed that sweet, sweet YouTube AdSense cash.

UPDATE: Peter Kafka of All Things D is live-tweeting these court papers as he makes his way through them. Sample quote he found from Viacom employee: ""I am uploading youtube videos under fake grassroots account.YouTube already questioning my identity. Bastards."

[via Daring Fireball]

(Pic: YouTube co-ounder Chad Hurly who, according to newly-released court documents, made $334 million selling his company to Google. Getty Images.)