GooTube & Yougle
I don't mean for the business, or for those young entrepreneurs who started out in a garage and can now go shopping for ascots. I mean for those Brokeback Mountain parodies.
Will the deal kill the fun?
Will Philadelphia Will Do and the 700 Level Get to post clips of stupid local TV tricks and Lito Sheppard's great return?
Dan McQuade at Philadelphia Will Do wrote today:
Yeah, I was wondering what this deal meant for me, too. (Not really.)
Blithe as he sounds, this is an issue for those of us who link those cool and easy-to-use videos on our sites. Even before the sale, some had fretted about YouTube's scrubbing of some content that others might find objectionable - such as a video of conservative blogger Michelle Malkin.
Now, with Google's deep pockets behind YouTube, is it Gentleman, Start Your Lawyers time?
Mark Cuban, who knows something about video on the Internet, asked and answered lots of questions in a post called, "I still think Google is crazy:"
Google Lawyers will be a busy, busy bunch. I dont think you can sue Google into oblivion, but as others have mentioned, if Google gets nailed one single time for copyright violation, there are going to be more shareholder lawsuits than doans has pills to go with the pile on copyright suits that follow. Think maybe how Google discloses what they perceive the copyright risk to be in the SEC filings might be an interesting read ?
I think there will be supoenas to get the names of Youtube and Google Video users. Lots of them as those copyright owners not part of the gravy train go after both Google and their users for infringement. ...
I think it was interesting how Google and YT both rushed to get deals done with the music labels. That tells me that they arent comfortable hiding behind the safe harbor laws. If they were, they would just be telling people to send take down notices rather than doing deals that require software to detect copyrights. ...
It will be interesting to see just how google reconciles selling videos like Crazy in Love from Sony, when the same video is available as a user upload for free from youtube.
it will be interesting to see how Fox reacts to this deal. Fox owns content. Neither Google or YT does. Could Fox, the owner of Myspace put GooTube in a huge hole by being legally aggressive and going after every video of Stewy from Family Guy , American Idol, any of their TV shows ? The same with their movies. Beyond just Gootube, (and I mash them together with nothing but love :), Fox could make them look real bad by using supoaenas to go after individual Gootube users. Fox is also a stickler for DRM, they aint gonna like having their content floating DRM free around the net. Sure, myspace would have to clean up some of their own videos, but it would be a far easier chore than Gootube has. Now that would be a celebrity lawyer match worth watching.
Don Dodge, who was a vp for Napster when the peer-to-peer company was successfully ed for copyright violations, writes that Cuban's views of YouTube's legal future are off the mark:
YouTube has "significant non-infringing use" which is a proven legal defense against copyright lawsuits. The Sony BetaMax case was won on the basis that video recorders were used for many other legal purposes that demonstrated significant non-infringing use. Sony could not be held liable for the misdeeds of some of its users. It is the responsibility of the copyright owner to identify infringing material and take action to protect it.
Robert Scoble, who used to blog for Microsoft, sides with Dodge:
Now, will Google get sued over and over? Probably. But if you think that matters then you are missing the point. Did Microsoft's legal troubles slow down its cash generation machines? No. Neither will Google's. Plus, Google has demonstrated it's fairly adept at working out deals with folks who produce content, or own it. Yeah, they'll probably lose a few battles in court, but that's like losing a battle or two but winning the war.
For Geek Brief, the huge deal raises a depressing point:
The content on YouTube testifies to the general boredom level in the world today.
(Pictured: the YouTuber known as the Zen Archer at work in his Ohio home/Credit: MCT.)
Aren't you a little young for a Gil Scott-Heron reference, 'Rico? Good pull!
Interesting read on who might be the next Youtube.. http://onlinevideo.blogspot.com/:
Would it be wise for the networks with copyrighted material to view GooTube in a glass half full light and decide that in the end, the little buzz created online helps spread the word on their shows?It's at times like these, or when MLB tries to squeeze out fantasy baseball companies, that I always think of the Dave Matthews Band allowing people to tape their shows for free back in the early '90's. Because of this, word spread...