Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

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  • Jimplication
    MVP
    • Aug 2004
    • 3591

    #1

    Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

    I came across this interesting article today while reading the Wall Street Journal. It relates to YouTube's content and potential violation of copyright laws.

    Media Titans Pressure YouTube Over Copyrights

    By MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG and KEVIN J. DELANEY
    October 14, 2006; Page A3


    In an apparent display of saber-rattling aimed at nudging video Web site YouTube Inc. into cutting favorable licensing deals, a number of major media companies have banded together to explore the legal implications of the video site's unauthorized use of copyright material, people familiar with the matter say.

    The move comes just days after YouTube agreed to be acquired by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion. If the deal goes through, deep-pocketed Google could be held responsible for YouTube's legal liabilities.

    YouTube, a hugely popular video-sharing site, carries both homemade videos, as well as professionally produced video clips from television networks and movie studios -- some uploaded illegally by users, and some available with the companies' consent. YouTube contends that it hasn't run afoul of copyright laws, because it immediately removes clips when rights holders complain about their inclusion on the site.

    But lawyers for the group of media companies, which includes News Corp., General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal and Viacom Inc., have concluded that YouTube could be liable to copyright penalties of $150,000 per unauthorized video, people familiar the matter say. Viacom believes that pirated versions of video clips from its cable channels -- including MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon -- are watched 80,000 times a day via YouTube. At that rate, potential penalties could run into the billions of dollars.

    Time Warner Inc. hasn't joined the group, but has also warned YouTube about what it considers to be the site's repeated infringement of its copyrights. In an interview that appeared in Britain's Guardian newspaper Friday, Time Warner Chief Executive Richard Parsons made ominous hints about what course he would pursue if YouTube doesn't agree to a deal.

    Whether the media companies eventually will file legal action is unclear, but the legal maneuvering comes as each of them is holding separate negotiations to allow YouTube to carry their programming in return for a slice of advertising revenue. Executives hope the possibility of legal action could prompt YouTube to improve terms it offers the media companies, according to people familiar with the matter.

    The media companies have an ambivalent view of Google. On the one hand, they fear its size and clout. On the other hand, the media companies know that Google can be a valuable partner in distributing their content around the Web and also in drawing advertising. Indeed, Google already has separate links through partnerships and ownership stakes to a number of media companies, a fact that could ease the companies' negotiations with YouTube.

    YouTube has been negotiating with content owners throughout the year as it tries to reach licensing pacts with them and head off any copyright lawsuits. So far, YouTube has struck deals with TV companies NBC Universal, CBS Corp. and with most of the major music companies, including Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group and Sony Corp.'s and Bertelsmann AG's joint venture. YouTube is building a system that would help automate identification of videos containing copyright material on its site, and allow the content owners to get a portion of any related ad revenue.

    The negotiations leading up to those pacts have sometimes included public criticism of the video-sharing site. Universal Music CEO Doug Morris told investors last month that YouTube violated copyright laws by allowing users to post music videos and other content. Universal Music had considered taking legal action against YouTube over that issue prior to announcing its pact with the video site Monday, say people familiar with the matter.

    The media companies now contemplating legal action have generally turned a blind eye to YouTube's use of their video. One reason for such tolerance is that the site guarantees their programs a degree of exposure hard to find elsewhere on the Web.

    In June, NBC inked a deal with YouTube to make available promotional video clips for some of its popular programs, including "The Office" and "The Tonight Show." But NBC has had repeated run-ins with YouTube over its use of videos the company hasn't approved. It has been asking the site to take down as many as 1,000 clips a month, according to a person familiar with the matter.

    The person says that Google's involvement with YouTube has added a sense of urgency to the negotiations for a resolution, because the deal is likely to sharply improve the video site's reach.

    Google said that pacts it and YouTube announced this week with content owners demonstrate their "commitment to respect the rights of content owners and to work with them to create new revenue streams."

    The media industry has been keen to avoid the mistakes music companies made in attacking Napster, an online service that allowed users to download pirated music. Although the original version of Napster was shut down, the move also spawned scores of imitators that continued to undermine the industry's business model. Meanwhile, music-industry litigation relating to Napster has dragged on for years.

    Legal experts debate how much liability YouTube faces. Some say that YouTube has the benefit of a set of special "safe harbors" enshrined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Under that process, Web-hosting sites such as YouTube have to comply with "takedown" notices that copyright holders may send when they become aware of content uploaded without their permission. Some entertainment companies have privately expressed frustration with the process, since it requires them to track down infringing works on a multitude of video-sharing sites.

    "YouTube looks to be on relatively firm legal ground," said Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. But, according to John Palfrey, an intellectual-property professor at Harvard Law School, media companies will argue that YouTube shouldn't fall within the safe-harbor protections of the copyright law because, among other reasons, YouTube is deriving direct financial benefit from the infringement.

    YouTube already faces a copyright suit filed in July in U.S. District Court by Los Angeles News Service owner Robert Tur over several videos he alleges appeared on the site without his permission.
    The boldfacing is mine. The article can be found HERE.
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  • SPTO
    binging
    • Feb 2003
    • 68046

    #2
    Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

    I have a feeling after YouTube and some of the media companies hammer out their own deals that the site will become a pay per join type of deal and that the variety of clips one can find will take a huge nosedive.

    In other words, YouTube as we know it is dead.
    Member of the Official OS Bills Backers Club

    "Baseball is the most important thing that doesn't matter at all" - Robert B. Parker

    Comment

    • The C
      Banned
      • Apr 2005
      • 7538

      #3
      Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

      I'm surprised the RIAA didn't get their greedy paws invovled in this.

      Comment

      • RubenDouglas
        Hall Of Fame
        • May 2003
        • 11202

        #4
        Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

        you better believe it.

        the gloves have come off.. once money was involved in the sale of the company and they see the true potential to sue, they are going off.

        Half of their top videos of the day or week are copyrighted news shoes from around the world or comedy routines... Maybe money off the backs of others with some CR loophole wont get you far.


        it was cool while it lasted. YOUTUBE IS OFFICIALLY gone imo.. give it 5 weeks.

        i still dont fully understand how you can sale a company based off of videos that arent even youre own. you gain popularity off "illegal" acts and still manage to make 1.6 billion dollars. i mean how fair is that?

        Its like me creating a site with a loophole that allows users to share ebooks online for free. lots of people join. i barely put forth any server fees and then later on i get a huge paycheck. like i said earlier in another thread, they had the perfect business model in place. and now to have google totally responsible since they own it, it was a perfect move. Could I live in harmony knowing I suckered some loophole legalities to obtain my riches?? possibly lol
        Last edited by RubenDouglas; 10-14-2006, 03:06 PM.

        Comment

        • The C
          Banned
          • Apr 2005
          • 7538

          #5
          Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

          Originally posted by RubenDouglas

          Its like me creating a site with a loophole that allows users to share ebooks online for free. lots of people join. i barely put forth any server fees and then later on i get a huge paycheck. like i said earlier in another thread, they had the perfect business model in place. and now to have google totally responsible since they own it, it was a perfect move. Could I live in harmony knowing I suckered some loophole legalities to obtain my riches?? possibly lol
          Your best bet would be instead of ebooks, go with porn. With ebooks, I'd imagine you'd make around a million. But with porn, you could be a trillionare.

          Comment

          • tenth
            MVP
            • Dec 2002
            • 1109

            #6
            Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

            I'm no expert, but I wouldn't be surprised if they end up under the safe harbors bolded at the bottom, that also got Ebay out of hot water with people constantly selling copyrighted material through them.

            We covered it in one of my classes, and I can't remember how it works, but it may be as simple as described in the article that so long as Ebay takes down the auction when notified by the copyright holders, they're fine. Obviously this isn't exactly the same, and I have no idea how the exemption was written, but it's not like Google was completey oblivious to the legal situation when they spent all that cash on it
            Last edited by tenth; 10-14-2006, 04:38 PM.

            Comment

            • bkfount
              All Star
              • Oct 2004
              • 8467

              #7
              Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

              they can also put up filters to prevent you from even putting certain things up.

              Comment

              • CMH
                Making you famous
                • Oct 2002
                • 26203

                #8
                Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

                Originally posted by The C
                Your best bet would be instead of ebooks, go with porn. With ebooks, I'd imagine you'd make around a million. But with porn, you could be a trillionare.
                Lets do it.
                "It may well be that we spectators, who are not divinely gifted as athletes, are the only ones able to truly see, articulate and animate the experience of the gift we are denied. And that those who receive and act out the gift of athletic genius must, perforce, be blind and dumb about it -- and not because blindness and dumbness are the price of the gift, but because they are its essence." - David Foster Wallace

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                • RubenDouglas
                  Hall Of Fame
                  • May 2003
                  • 11202

                  #9
                  Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

                  Update:

                  stuff ive noticed being taken down:

                  -NFL footage. old, new, mixtapes. it doesnt matter. its slowly getting deleted.

                  the very stuff that made youtube great and earned them their money are getting deleted.

                  Comment

                  • elicoleman
                    Im The Baby/Gotta Love Me
                    • Sep 2002
                    • 34655

                    #10
                    Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

                    Pathetic.
                    Originally posted by CardsFan27
                    This is the 3rd time John Calipari has been to his first Final Four!
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                    • TheMatrix31
                      RF
                      • Jul 2002
                      • 52908

                      #11
                      Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

                      I don't know about you guys but I'd gladly pay a monthly subscription, if it meant that copyrighted material would get to stay on.....

                      Comment

                      • SPTO
                        binging
                        • Feb 2003
                        • 68046

                        #12
                        Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

                        Originally posted by RubenDouglas
                        Update:

                        stuff ive noticed being taken down:

                        -NFL footage. old, new, mixtapes. it doesnt matter. its slowly getting deleted.

                        the very stuff that made youtube great and earned them their money are getting deleted.

                        Yep i've detailed this in the "what the hell is on your mind" thread. My subscription list has been gutted. Some really great posters with great NFL telecasts/intros from the past have lost their accounts. Last I checked a guy with the account name 49ersnews still has his account. He's the guy that posted basically the entire SB telecasts for the Niners. I'm sure he's been shut down by now.

                        It truly sucks that this is happening. I can live with this if the NFL plans to put up their own account and show those kind of clips but that's not gonna happen. As matrix said, i'd gladly pay for a subscription for the RIGHT price if it means getting access to those great videos again.

                        BTW 30,000 videos dealing with japanese anime has been wiped clean as well. I'm not a fan of that but it must truly suck for those folks as well.
                        Member of the Official OS Bills Backers Club

                        "Baseball is the most important thing that doesn't matter at all" - Robert B. Parker

                        Comment

                        • TheMatrix31
                          RF
                          • Jul 2002
                          • 52908

                          #13
                          Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

                          Yeah, most definitely, cuz I spend HOURS searching and watching things on Youtube on a weekly basis, mainly things like live performances of songs, and other clips from movies and stuff.

                          How much would you guys be willing to spend monthly to keep that stuff up?

                          Comment

                          • p2xgamers
                            All Star
                            • Jul 2002
                            • 4735

                            #14
                            Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

                            If it's copyright material they could reach a deal with various networks though I don't know how much for a subscription they would need, to sustain the money they would pay out. (FOX, NFL, NBA, MLB, Anime Companies, etc.)

                            I wouldn't be willing to pay much since I hardly use it, maybe $5/month.
                            Lifelong Bengals and Buckeyes fan...yeah...

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                            • SPTO
                              binging
                              • Feb 2003
                              • 68046

                              #15
                              Re: Media titans pressure YouTube over copyrights

                              Originally posted by TheMatrix31

                              How much would you guys be willing to spend monthly to keep that stuff up?
                              10-15 bucks a month. No more, no less.

                              BTW I just checked youtube and amazingly 49ersnews still has his account!
                              Member of the Official OS Bills Backers Club

                              "Baseball is the most important thing that doesn't matter at all" - Robert B. Parker

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