In a hearing Thursday, officials from YouTube defended the company against accusations that they were undercutting TV broadcasters with high-quality video clips. Lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce telecom subcommittee were not impressed.

"We're offering a different experience than the TV," YouTube CEO Chad Hurley said. "We're offering real quality short clips that can be viewed by everyone. It's far from full-length, high quality TV programming."

In light of Viacom's recent lawsuit against YouTube and NBC's decision to file an amicus brief in a similar case, lawmakers remained incredulous.

"That's probably true in some instances, but clearly, if someone puts a clip of a movie or a show from Fox, that is a copyright violation," said Rep. Mike Ferguson, a New Jersey Republican. "Why don't you take that stuff down?"

Hurley responded by explaining that YouTube is shielded from liability under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Internet maverick Mark Cuban, who also testified before the committee in support of net neutrality and increased government investment in high speed infrastructure, said YouTube has no right to hide behind the DMCA.

In a separate line of questioning, Cuban told Congress that they should look at access to bandwidth in much the same way they regulate utilities such as electricity.

"In our current bandwidth-constrained environment, the concept of internet video replacing TV is laughable," Cuban said. "Replacing high-definition TV with online content isn't even on the radar. There is certainly a market for video content on PCs, but it's a complimentary market, not a primary market."