Oct

6

Google - YouTube

October 6, 2006 |

The Google-YouTube meme has been boiling over today after a post on TechCrunch, and article on the Wall Street Journal (no registration, not quite legal link) and is now even picked up by the right-wing “news” outlet called the Drudge Report

At this point, I see little analysis, but Jason Calacanis and Om Malik present the pro and con sides to the rumors.

According to Om:

Anyway the deal has as much chance of happening as me dropping 40 pounds. Google folks have to be aware of the fact that the minute they buy YouTube, they are going to have to deal with lawsuits by truckloads, which could cost them money, but more importantly distract them from their core business.

And according to Jason:

  • Given that Google is also not afraid of taking risk with IP issues–and going to bat in the courts over them. Google is the perfect home for YouTube because Google is excellent at holding the line on what they think is fair use and creating tools for folks to opt-out of their service. For evidence of this check their thumbnail, book-scanning, and news services. They’ve gotten attacked on all of those fronts and they’ve held the line, gone to the courts, all while respecting copyright holders.
  • Since Google is not a big media company–but rather a friend of content companies–they will not take the flames from other media companies over buying the asset. Their the advertising and technology platform company, so the media companies will feel comfortable with them buying YouTube. It’s like a neutral party buying the biggest asset in play.

 

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