GooTube vs Copyright. Round 1.
October 13, 2006
Let the games begin. Time Warner are the first in what could be a long line of copyright holders stepping up to see how deep Google’s pockets are following their acquisition of YouTube.
It was a sure bet that many copyright holders were waiting to see if YouTube would be snapped-up by a richer adoptive parent before “pursuing their [copyright] complaints”, and I’m not surprised at how quickly Time Warner have moved.
Companies like Time Warner, who had little chance in seeing anything other than their material taken off YouTube, must have been thrilled at the prospect of Google taking them over. Don’t forget that YouTube doesn’t make any money – yet – but Google make an awful lot of it.
The good new is that Time Warner don’t appear to be going for the “sue them into oblivion” approach:
He [Dick Parsons, Time Warner CEO] took a more emollient stance than some when he said: “We’d like to have our content displayed on these platforms, but on a basis that it respects our rights as the owner of that content.”
It sounds like what they’re looking for is some way of monetising the content they own whenever it appears on YouTube, in much the same way that Universal Music and BMG have recently agreed to.
Either way, the copyright holders see a return – strike a partnership deal, and monetise the content; or, sue for copyright infringement. What the media companies should not lose sight of is that only one of those options will win favour with the fans; those people whose hard-earned cash ultimately keeps these media companies in business.
[tags]Google, YouTube, GooTube, media, copyright, Warner, BMG[/tags]
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