Even by US standards, this piece of litigation is truly bizarre.Last week, all the attention was on reports that Viacom, Nickelodeon's parent company, had launched a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube, the video-sharing website owned by Google.

Now we learn that Viacom's former chief chief Thomas Freston, who gave us the slogan 'I want My MTV', is locked in a legal battle with New York's board of education over the right to have the city pay to educate his son, who has special needs.

People might remember that Freston walked out with $85 million last year when he was turfed out as Viacom boss, as reported here. This guy is not your average public school parent.

The weird qualities of this case are explored in detail by Bloomberg's Amity Shlaes.

Freston's action generates massive costs and Shlaes quite rightly points out that the guy should probably try doing it another way.

"Freston might better devote his post-Viacom hours to getting Congress to pass a federal law about how to help special-needs kids. This avenue to reform is better than the courthouse steps,'' she writes."The Supreme Court will probably hear the suit in October. Already the case reminds us of something. Legal action is like MTV, providing consolation, even instant gratification, for some: 'I want my lawsuit.' Only later do we find out how much a suit costs the rest of us."