Google buying out YouTube?

[mel]

Re: Google buying out YouTube?

Seems like YouTube also struck a deal with Sony BMG and possibly Universal music.

But many companies see potential and are lining up to work with the site, rather than begging a court to shut it down. On Monday, YouTube announced deals with CBS, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group.

As for potential copyright violations, I think what sets YouTube apart from the old Napster and other P2P sites is that (from what I can gather) YouTube does not allow users to trade the actual video files that were uploaded to the site. All of the videos there are in flash format and most of them are low-res and not worthy to burn to DVD and show on regular TV.

I can see the possibility of copyright infringement in the fact that YouTube harbors a lot of music videos, TV and movie clips (sometimes entire episodes broken into 10 minute blocks) and the use of commercial music in numerous amateur clips. I think the fact that YouTube is making an effort to strike deals with the majors will clear them of some if not all of the legal hurdles.

In the end, users will hopefully stay happy and that YouTube will continue to allow people to embed/syndicate their content on our own websites. YouTube is also a great place to put you own, original video content and embed it back to your own site. You get the hit but not use up all of your own bandwidth.

At least for now. Who knows if the model will change in the future. Google/YouTube may be considering adding 15 second commercial clips to the beginning of each video. I am sure that will turn off a lot of their users.

[pzarquon]

Re: Google buying out YouTube?

Google has dominated the online marketplace specifically because of its core focus on unobtrusive advertising. I doubt they'd insert ads into video playback. At least not 'til the entire page surrounding the video window is completely filled with AdSense ads.

I was in the "you'd be an idiot to buy YouTube" camp, but the more analyses I read, the smarter the move looks.

I like that folks are calling it GooTube.

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Google buying out YouTube?

If he can sue me for shooting a public video on a beach... can I in return press charges against the guy for drinking underage on a public beach?

Do you have video of him drinking on a public beach? Can you prove he was drunk and it wasn't something else? Bottom line, from what I've seen, no charges can be pressed. On the other hand, he might have something against you. Not for video taping him. (That's legal) but for publishing to the world. That's a different matter. And that's where many people get tripped up. Taking and publishing are different matters.

[damontucker]

Re: Google buying out YouTube?

Do you have video of him drinking on a public beach? Can you prove he was drunk and it wasn't something else? Bottom line, from what I've seen, no charges can be pressed. On the other hand, he might have something against you. Not for video taping him. (That's legal) but for publishing to the world. That's a different matter. And that's where many people get tripped up. Taking and publishing are different matters.

Your welcome to view it for yourself... and then make judgement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFCS8I_StPc
Make sure your volume is up if you wanna hear the dialog between Him, His friends, and I.

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Google buying out YouTube?

As for potential copyright violations, ....

If I'm not mistaken, the way it works now for other websites is that someone contacts the service provider and tells them they have copyrighted works on their site. After some back and forth, it gets pulled.

As far as I know YouTube does not endorse uploading copyrighted works and will pull them if asked. But they aren't reviewing everything to find it (I don't think they are required to) and the copyright holders aren't that aggressive (they're suing because they don't what to have to look at the whole site to find copyright violations either. They want YouTube doing the work.) If one looks, you can find lots of things that are amateur recordings, so I can't see the claim that YouTube is founded on copyright violations. As long as YouTube has a reasonable process, I can't see the copyright holders wining this one, but I could easily be wrong.