UMG threatens YouTube
p2pnet.net News:- There’s no honour among thieves, goes the saying, and with EMI and NBC already plugged firmly into YouTube, Universal Music’s Doug Morris says the site consistently violates the music industry’s copyrights.
“Morris’ cage-rattling could signal the first legal fight on behalf of a major content company against YouTube, which was founded less than two years ago but has quickly become the dominant online video site,” says The New York Post.
“According to industry data, some 60 percent of videos viewed online come from YouTube. A mega-lawsuit over copyrights would complicate YouTube’s plans to sell itself to a major media company or launch an initial public offering.”
Even more ominously, “We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars,” ZDNet Digital Micro-Markets has him saying. “How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly.”
Vivendi’s Universal, “has let it be known that pirates’ gold must be shared,” adds the post.
Also See:
plugged firmly – NBC buys into YouTube, June 28, 2006
The New York Post – Universal Music warns web video swapper, September 14, 2006
Digital Micro-Markets – YouTube, MySpace at risk, September 14, 2006
p2pnet newsfeeds for your site.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss
Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
September 14th, 2006 at 11:54 pm
i am amazed youtube still have their head above water…
September 15th, 2006 at 12:36 am
This is why copyright owners lobbied so hard for “inducement” legislation and the vague “inducement” Grokster test. Whereas it’s easy for a company like YouTube to defend against “contributory” copyright infringement by using the DMCA safe harbor, or proving they didn’t know about users’ infringement, it’s very very hard to prove it hasn’t vaguely “induced” copyright infringement in some way.
The logical consequence of this, of course, is that it becomes very very easy to allege inducement. Copyright owners can threaten to pull competitors into a giant litigation money pit with only the barest puff of “evidence.”
Investors, watch for a booming new market in selling settlements thanks to inducement. Copyright owners will be reaping in all those new profits.
September 17th, 2006 at 2:36 am
Negotiate. Labels say you’re not negotiating in good faith. They file a lawsuit. Uninformed Judge finds them guilty of Infringment, awards them $25K per infringment resulting in billions of $$$ of debt. Universal offer to buy YouTube for about 10 cents on the dollar. They take it over and put it under in record time. Meanwhile deleting all the files, copyrighted and original, thereby eliminating any potential competition.