Competition Sparks Copyright Suits
Posted on March 16, 2007
Filed Under What's New, Insights |
Just noticed that the Viacom $1 billion suit against YouTube comes as Viacom opted for Joost as a distribution partner.
I was talking recently with the guys at Joost competitor Babelgum who told me they are finding extreme difficulty getting rights clearances for whole shows - the rights legacy for different segments, interviews, archive footage, and photography can go back into various rights holders, providers, and contributors that all need contacting to negotiate new rights - and many want unrealistic amounts of money. In other words the complexity and cost rules them out.
That made me think - wow, so that’s why media companies are OK with clips being used. It means they avoid the rights issues and leave that to YouTube and its lawyers to defend.
Joost and Babelgum have to go for rights-cleared programming and that means more strength to the traditional copyright elbow. Commentators who think that YouTube blasted conventional copyright out of the water will have to think again. These two new Internet TV services will only work if traditional copyright is respected. Meanwhile companies like Viacom have presumably been happy for YouTube to do the mini-clips precisely because that’s all about pirating. What a wonderful world.
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