IP Democracy: Why, Mark Cuban, Why?

As everybody in the Internet world knows by now, Mark Cuban has a bug up his britches about YouTube, waxing forth in his blog and getting aggressive in the legal realm about what he contends is YouTube’s disrespect for copyrights. He was the voice of doom when Google shelled out $1.65 billion in buying the top online video sharing site, promising even before the deal went down that the Google guys would be “crazy” to buy YouTube.

Cuban’s point then was that YouTube is violating the copyright laws and that the company will implode under the weight of copyright infringement lawsuits. Turns out that Cuban was more of a Cassandra than I suspected, although his predictions are far from becoming reality.

He’s still at it, and possibly even more so — still a public spokesperson against YouTube, if this write-up by NewTeeVee contributor Janko Roettgers is any indication. Roettgers sat in on a debate yesterday between Cuban and EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann.

Cuban used the the evening to shed some light on his position. He thinks Google should be held liable for copyright infringements because YouTube doesn’t establish commercial relations with its users, in effect allowing them to upload videos with fake accounts and without any verification of their identity. This distinguishes the site, in his eyes, from traditional web hosters, who are protected from the misdeeds of their users through the “safe harbor provisions” of the DMCA. Says Cuban: “If you are a web host it should be natural to know who your customers are.”

Here’s the thing: Cuban used to be a “copyfighter.” He has long supported the EFF (which fights what it considers overencroachment of intellectual property rights on the consumer’s right to access content) and he even helped to bankroll Grokster’s ill-fated legal fights.

He made billions off the dot.com heyday sale of his video-centric Internet venture. Why are his knickers in such a twist about YouTube, then? I don’t get it.

I can understand why Viacom and other major video content providers are gunning for YouTube. They have massive, long-established businesses to protect and it just ticks them off that some upstart can make money off of their hard work (which is not to say that what YouTube is doing is unlawful).

But does YouTube threaten Cuban’s Magnolia motion picture business? Or is he speaking out on behalf of the companies that provide content to his HDNet venture? Magnolia hasn’t been terribly harmed that I can see by YouTube and HDNet doesn’t really seem to have a dog in the YouTube hunt.

I just don’t see how Mark Cuban has become the poster boy for anti-YouTube sentiment, posting op-ed pieces and adopting anti-YouTube stances at debates.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on March 28, 2007 11:25 AM to IP Democracy