Viacom has announced the first huge copyright infringement notice against YouTube. It has served YouTube with notice to remove 100,000 infringing videos.
As you know, YouTube is a site where people can post videos of just about anything. Millions of people visit the site, which made it attractive enough for Google to spend $1.65 billion dollars in stock to purchase the site. There is one problem, however. Many wonder how YouTube is any different than Napster when it comes to copyright issues.
There is absolutely nothing illegal or wrong about creating and posting a video on YouTube. Frankly, YouTube is a revolutionary site as shown by its popularity. Things get murkier, however, when people post videos that were made by others. As this article suggests, those "others" are often media companies and the companies are none to pleased that their television shows, movies and music videos are being uploaded without their consent. Viacom is one such company.
Viacom has a beef with YouTube because videos from two of its major television channels, MTV, Comedy Central and BET, are being posted like mad on YouTube. Viacom suggests that the total videos have been accessed and viewed by over 1.2 billion people, although this number should be taken with a grain of salt since no proof is offered. Regardless, the ball is clearly in YouTube's court.
So, what can we expect to happen? Will YouTube cave and remove the videos from the site? Will the company risk being crushed in a copyright lawsuit? Any of these results are unlikely. The reason has to do with the evolution of copyright views by media entertainment companies.
When the music industry started prosecuting copyright on sites like Napster, they took a beating in the public. As Lars Ulrich of Metallica said, it was no fun being the most hated man in music. Although the music industry continues to pursue the self-destructive copyright infringement cases against kids, other media companies are taking a new approach. Instead of suing, they are negotiating licensing agreements with sites like YouTube. This creates a revenue stream from the videos, gets around the copyright problem and lets people post video without the threat of being sued.
By serving copyright infringement notice against YouTube, Viacom is not really looking to sue the site. Instead, it is most likely trying to create leverage to get the best licensing deal possible. Ultimately, you should expect to see an agreement reached and similar approaches taken by other media companies when dealing with YouTube.
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