IP Democracy: Google in "Frantic" Talks? Probably Not.

The blogosphere is in a tizzy today over this Financial Times piece that claims Google, YouTube’s soon-to-be parent company, is in “frantic” talks with all the powerful entertainment companies to avert a “potentially crippling round of lawsuits.” The article contends that CEO Eric Schmidt and other Google executives are offering “tens of millions” of dollars in upfront money to appease CBS, Viacom, Time Warner, NBC Universal and News Corp., among others.

Puhleeeease….first of all, as we’ve already established, YouTube only has to respond to take-down requests to avoid big and expensive copyright infringement lawsuits. It’s true that all of these media giants could sue without first requesting take-downs of their content, but how far could those suits get? Google/YouTube merely has to point out that these suits were filed prematurely, i.e. that the media companies didn’t bother, couldn’t lift a finger even, to follow the statutorily established remedy spelled out in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Unless the media companies could establish that Google/YouTube had prior knowledge of the infringing videos, what judge in his right mind would allow these kinds of lawsuits to proceed? Like anybody else, federal court judges are overworked and don’t want to have to deal with conflicts that could otherwise be remedied, and, in this case, easily remedied. Google probably already knows that any infringement lawsuits filed by parties that didn’t even bother to request take-downs will get dismissed lickety-split.

More than likely, Google isn’t “frantic” but is being aggressive in trying to land content deals that take YouTube to the next level. That’s what they should be doing…YouTube can grow only so big and make only so much money with videos of cats chasing their tails or charming old British men telling their life stories. It’s just far more exciting to think of these talks as “frantic” attempts by a big powerful company to keep its headline-grabbing, $1.65 billion acquisition from going down the drain.

Update: Viacom is purportedly one of the companies Google is talking with, discussions that follow on the heels of Viacom’s request that YouTube take down clips from its Comedy Central “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” shows. This related video clip from “The Colbert Report,” which is still on YouTube (oh, the irony) is not to be missed.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on November 3, 2006 1:26 PM to IP Democracy