Google faces copyright threat over YouTube

Filed under: Video, Web services, Google

Google faces copyright threat over YouTube

by Jordan Running Oct 13th 2006

Before Google acquired YouTube a lot of people said that any company that bought YouTube would be "buying a lawsuit." Or a lot of them. And to nobody's surprise, that seems to be the case for Google. According to the Guardian, Time Warner (whose Warner Music arm struck deals with both YouTube and Google in previous weeks) has "fired a shot across the bows of Google," saying that it would pursue its compyright complaints against YouTube, and that now that YouTube is a Google property that pursuit will be "kicked up to the Google level." Though Google, whose market cap is higher than Time Warner's, stands a better chance against Time Warner's lawyers than most companies, Time Warner chief Dick Parsons says, "If you let one thing ignore your rights as an owner it makes it much more difficult to defend those rights when the next guy comes along," even if that "one thing" is now under Google's ample wing. Other media companies will surely be keeping a close eye on Time Warner and Google's moves in the coming months to see how this all shapes up.

Tags: copyright, google, googtube, gootube, infringement, time warner, TimeWarner, video, youtube

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

MM said 4:29PM on 10-13-2006

Who would've guessed ? Here they are simply buying the website whose big reason for being popular is "pirated" copyrighted content.

Mosh said 4:40PM on 10-13-2006

As if no one saw that coming! Of course, all it would take is for Google to say to TW 'fine, we'll keep all of your content off You Tube' and pretty soon TW will feel left out (of revenue) and come to an agreement.

PETE said 1:35AM on 10-15-2006

money, publicity aside, weren't media's soul purpose of existance is to be broadcasted, watched widely as possible ? if T.Warner doesnt want people to see their contents, why bother producing it in first place ?

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