How do you race to the top of an emerging market? If you're Google, one strategy may be to ignore copyright law just as long as necessary to establish a foothold. At least that's the claim being leveled at the search giant and its YouTube video-sharing site.

First, the facts. YouTube saw a 5.6 percent spike in its month-to-month traffic, giving the site a whopping 71.8 million unique visitors for the month of June, according to a TV Week report. Compare that figure to YouTube's closest competitor, Fox Interactive Media (17.3 million uniques in June), and you get a pretty clear idea of just how dominant the Google-owned company really is.

But that dominance has come with a label that Google and YouTube may not appreciate: rogue. That was the word used by Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman to describe Google and YouTube as well their strategy to grab ahold of the emerging online video market.

While the unkind words should come as no surprise -- Dauman's Viacom is in the midst of a massive copyright lawsuit with YouTube -- the statement may prove to be something of a warning shot at Google.

Despite YouTube's massive popularity, Google has had trouble finding a way to monetize the site. Earlier this month, YouTube made the drastic decision of offering pre-roll on some videos, despite a widespread belief among advertisers that users aren't keen to see ads before a brief, two-minute clip.

At the same time, YouTube has been hard at work trying to entice professional content producers in the form of major media companies to use the video platform. Most recently, YouTube signed a deal with Lionsgate. However, that deal, which is likely part of Google's larger plan for bringing ad-worthy content to YouTube's massive audience, could be in jeopardy, according to Dauman, who said other Hollywood studios may not be so keen to negotiate a deal.