(Untitled)

[oreally77]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I came home tonight hoping to get a really good head start on my second draft for my note/article/whatever. Lo and behold, one of the first things I hear is "Google buys YouTube." Faaaaaaaaaantastic. Now, some people know that my topic involves YouTube and copyright infringement and how it may be the next Napster or

Comments

[atomicspin]

I guess I don't understand how it negates your paper. The acquisition only makes the problem bigger in my opinion. Google Video and YouTube are going to have the exact same copyright issues and may still have to get shut down regardless of Google's size if they can't control the copyrighted material that gets uploaded.

And selling to Google isn't considered "selling out" because Google's motto is "Don't be evil!" [sic]

[oreally77]

I dunno.... I just feel like yah, they'll still have the same issues, but with a lot more money, they'll now be able to concentrate more on protecting against copyright infringement, either by implementing new tools or policing the site, etc. It's not going to negate my argument completely, but I think it's going to make it more difficult. I think the little guys, not necessarily the media conglomerates, will always find their material up there without permission.... and maybe now that YouTube has the backing of Google, they'll be even more likely to sue? I dunno. I have to think more about it.

[atomicspin]

Well, I think your Napster argument has a lot of cred. VC's were giving those guys basically unlimited funds and it still wasn't enough for them to figure out a) how to win in court and b) how to fix their technology in a way that would solve most copyright issues.

I think if the "Sue because they're Google" argument was true then Google Video would already have been having issues, God knows that they have a ton of copyright stuff up there and Google Video is actually trying to make money off of certain videos.

Also, found this today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCVxQ_3Ejkg

[oreally77]

I haven't really been focusing on Google so much, primarily b/c there's just been more recent controversy surrounding--and a lawsuit filed against--YouTube. But, maybe now it would make a lot more sense to focus on Google's tactics as well. Do you know if they're trying to make money off of copyrighted videos or just those created by amateurs who are putting their videos on the site?

[atomicspin]

They're absolutely trying to make money off of copyrighted videos. They have deals with Warner, ABC, etc. Most stuff sells for $1.99.

[oreally77]

Oh... right. But the videos are actually supplied by the copyright owner. They're not making any money off of copyrighted material uploaded by someone other than the copyright owner.

Can't you find copyrighted video uploaded by users without permission in the free area? Or, do they police the site and remove those videos?
Sorry I'm bombarding you with questions. I'll figure all this out eventually, but if you know off-hand, that would be lovelyyyy.

Thanks again.

[atomicspin]

One more thing worth reading:

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/10/1248235&from=rss

Some good comments.

[oreally77]

Thank you! This is a really good article for me.