Posted on November 3, 2006 - by John

Google tries to prevent future lawsuits

Google tries to prevent future lawsuits

Now that Google owns Youtube, and it has cost them $1.65 billion, they now have the arduous task of making the whole thing legal. From personal use, I can see that most of the content is taken from various TV, music and movie shows, which of course is all copyrighted content. Google must obviously think that they can pull this off, and reach an agreement with the various companies, to make the currently unauthorised content legal. And from all the bitching that’s going on now in relation to music rights and so on, one with think that this would be a difficult task, but based on Google’s track record, I’m sure it is one they will face head on.

The Irish Times is reporting today that Google’s chief executive Eric Schmidt has met the major players, such as CBS, NBC and so on. This is of course a proactive measure, visiting these companies before their lawyers come knocking on Google’s door. Google hopes that it will be able to integrate its advertising platform with the site, and reach a larger audience. This is of course a necessity, as Youtube has yet to make produce revenue, and the cost of hosting and running such a site would mean it would take a big cut of the budget.

I like the idea of Youtube, and it should fit in well with Google’s objective of organising the world’s information. You can spend (no not waste) hours on this site, watching members of the public doing something stupid, or watching the latest move releases (previews of course) or even out-takes of your favourite shows.

Have a great weekend!

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