Viacom and YouTube are amidst a battle over copyrighted material, and the two media giants are currently going head-to-head in the courtroom. The network claims the online site posted their content without permission; their $1 billion lawsuit was filed in 2007, and the Post reports that some damning emails were revealed in court this week.
Viacom declares that “piracy (was) central to YouTube’s economic business model,” and, well, maybe it was? Emails from 2005 between co-founders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim aren't painting them in the best light. In regards to certain copyrighted videos, Chen simply said, "steal it! We have to keep in mind that we need to attract traffic. How much traffic will we get from personal videos?”
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YouTube claims they were in compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, taking down copyrighted videos when alerted. The founders also say that if Viacom wins, YouTube and sites like it will become extinct.
As much as I think it's ridiculous for Viacom to sue for thousands and thousands of free little commercials for their products being loosed on the Internets, I do kinda hope they win--but only if the YT founders are right and that sites like YouTube will go away.
Why do I want this? Because I feel like YouTube, and sites like it, that don't do revenue sharing with *all* of their content providers is completely unfair. If they can't afford to pay everyone AND keep the site up, then it should go away. It's called market economics.
The fact of the matter is that Google IS making money off of other folks clips, whether they are Viacom's or not and just like I can take my clips off of YouTube, Viacom should have the right to do the same. If YouTube can't survive because of that, then why should it?
Wondering where you'll put your videos if YouTube and its clones are disappeared by the law? Do what I did for *years* and PAY for your own hosting. Grow up, kids! Sheesh...
Just my ¥2, as always...
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