Now we're in for a fight. Last week, Viacom -- the media conglomerate that owns, among other things, MTV, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central -- demanded that YouTube pull more than 100,000 clips which Viacom says infringe their copyrights.
This is an interesting development, since Viacom had previously been in negotiation with Google to come up with an agreement to kosherize the material in question. This latest move might mean that Viacom is fed up with perceived foot-dragging on Google's part, or it could be a negotiating tactic.
At any rate, according to the DMCA Safe Harbor regulations, YouTube now has less than 10 days to take the clips down. Which means I don't have much time left to enjoy those Stephen Colbert clips and Steely Dan videos that I like. Sigh.
In the broader scheme of things, this points to the complication of bringing the world of video to the Internet in a clear and legal way. In theory, it seems like it would be easy for Google to sign deals with the media companies. But it's also clear that Viacom et al are still trying to preserve what they can from their old business models, so the theory only holds so far.
I'll be interested to see how this flap plays out and what implications it has for Joost and other companies trying to merge TV and the Web
(BTW, an interesting debate on the subject can be found in the comments section here)
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