With the new WIPO rules the first broadcaster owns the copyright (thats right, you make a film. Its get broadcast on the BBc, and if PBS want to broadcast it, you have to ask the BBC for permission).

Broadcastng includes podcasting or vodcasting on the internet. I.e. YouTube shows it, they own it.

This could mean that leaked material broadcast on YouTube becomes property of YouTube. I will ask if you could confirm this but despite sounding impossible, this seems to be the case.

Of course I could be mosreading the proposed laws.

Well… well… well it looks like someone else can see exactly what Ive been talking about – http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061006/ap_on_bi_ge/google_youtube;_ylt=AhSimCO7hS7EnjCSnt5FyhGs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

Google is now it talks to buy Youtube How cool is that, now there are some real smart people working over there at Google. I think this will be an amazing Deal and an even better partnership

Mark Cuban I guess your getting old. (lol that means laughing out loud) You probably think its a bad idea:)

http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2006/09/youtubes_potent.html

On the back of these numbers a content licencing deal looks an attractive proposition that would help all parties involved including users.

Lets be clear about something, the law says that you must provide a way for the copyright holder to inform you and remove content once notified by the copyright holder, which youtube does right away. (and something Bit torrent and napster, limewire, etc all never did or tried to do not really anyway.) They have even begun using filters to weed out keywords and are working with big studios to insure a fair playing field environment.

Lets also be clear about this Napster was indeed illegal but it did feed an important need that the public seem to have about getting music online, the big music companies could have easily bought the company and turned it into a pay service like Apples itunes but instead they choose to go against the grain and fight it. We all know how well that turned out.

Well today I hope studio companies are smarter then that, I hope these companies understand that this is the future and in the future it pays to focus you fights on things that make sense, going after someones video because they played a copyrighted song in the background is just stupid, especially when that song becomes more popular and makes people want to buy it because they heard it and liked it in a particular video blog.

Today NBC has its own user profile on youtube where they have begun reposting their own TV show content. The world is changing and it makes sense to work out something that works for everyone.

Warnerbros has made a deal with youtube too, http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=48332&art_type=13
And Im sure others will follow, people say it cant be done but here it is being done right before your eyes.

So lets focus on the real value of youtube, it controls the focus of a huge amount of viewers and in the internet world thats everything, so why do you want to fight something that can be bigger then we ever dreamed? Why do you want to go against the changing future, against technology?

They use to say the radio would kill music sales. I still laugh at the thought of that idea. Its funny but radio actually made music bigger then it ever was. Bigger then the music companies every dreamed of.

So are you that person standing at the top of the roof screaming how it cant work, and how its too crazy, and it will never happen. Because if you are, last call at the bar was awhile ago and you really need to stop drinking and pull up your pants and come back inside now, I hope thats not you. (Laughing out loud) seriously I hope not, because you sound crazy right now. Also

Because your wrong, and if you think about it, companies will learn how to play nice, not because they want to but because its in their best interest. And it will make the whole thing better as we go forward into the future. Think outside the box. Youtube is the future and fighting youtube would just make someone else youtube, just like fighting napstar made limewire.

The future wont wait for you to figure it out that its here, because the future is happening in real time.

Youtube is a goldmine period, and if you cant see that cancel your subscription to the wall street journal because trust me you dont need it

And to Mark Cuban I think youre a genius and if youre telling me you really cant see this then you need to call me because that just amazes me, I really need to hear you say it.. Email me and Ill send you my cell number…

But you seem to neglect the reason for the love and the traffic.

The main reason is – they built the love and the traffic WITH STOLEN CONTENT. Let’s call it that way. People steal some copyright protected work and put it to a museum where everybody can watch it for free. Nevermind the copyright holders that are gathering with pitchforks at the back entrance of the museum, uhh, I see some guns as well there.

But seriously, their core problem is copyright, copyright, copyright. People come there to see funny clips from movies, TV shows, or some weirdo adult stuff. The shaky and remarkably unfunny 10fps mobile phone videos of teenagers very quickly lose appeal once you have seen a few of them.

So people turn to quality content, which comes from quality producers, using studios, pro equipment and real production teams. These cost real $$$, and so they want to see $$$ for that content. And that’s why they get upset about YouTube.

The second YouTube earns real money, they will be sued to hell over copyright infringement. The second they start to introduce pre-roll or post-roll advertising, the guys with the pitchforks will show up. Unless they find some smart way to share the revenue. But still, I don’t think they can manage all this. There are too many copyright holders out there.

I did a quick check the other day on three search terms: “Mercedes”, “Julia Roberts”, and “BMW”. I sorted the results by view count. Guess what? Between 50% and 80% of the views of the Top 20 videos for each query were coming from infringing material. That’s YT reality. You can try it for any other brand, movie title, or actor name. If you remove all the infringing stuff, the leftover is soooo unattractive, that noone will find YT attractive any longer.

I love your take on it, but lets not be nave youtube is the leader of its domain space on the web and if you where really smart you would be putting in an offer to buy that company because right now is the sweet spot time. Shes a gold mine at 1.5 or 2.0 billion dollars, and if that seems high to you. Well lets just say people thought 580 million for MySpace was just crazy, but just take a guess at how much MySpace is worth today.
Now its simple if you control the place that everyone comes to they you my friend are a genius. And youtube is huge, its true value will far exceed the 2.0 billion mark as the net continues to grow and in the right hands it is where you want to be when you want to run that 2 million dollar commercial that must be seen by at least 30 million viewers.
Think about this many sites do this where you come to the site (Cnet & IGN.com for example) and an ad rolls before you continue on to the site. Well no other site can do it better then youtube will be able to do it. People are so in-love with youtube that if I had to wait a few minutes for the site to load while an ad played I wont care, or if it went to a subscription service, I would still be there. Why because it is the one, the one that does it right and the one that we all love already.
I think Bill Gates said it best after he stole the Mac O.S. and called it windows when he told Steve Jobs it doesnt matter that your better, it only matters who is first.

(its what people came to know as a computer O.S. and so what if Mac is better you already learned everything you know on a PC and in the end thats all that matters so most people stay on the PC because its what you know, its what you learned first.)

Youtube is first and therefore it will remain the king unless someone reinvents the space and even then youtube will copy and advance and remain the king.

If you want to know where the net is headed its headed towards youtube-tv where you will watch TV from your PC using your youtube subscription account. Now has youtube made that yet? No, but for the person who buys it what an amazing move, a chance to change the internet world as we know it. And he who controls the internet makes all the money.

So Mark if I was you I would be putting together all your investors you can find and make bid for the big dog on the block, I got 50,000 for you, sorry its so small but thats all I got I dont own a big basketball team or nothing like that. But dont worry I know someone who will put up the other billion you will need.

(But seriously I think if anyone can do it, you can, youre in the perfect position to do it just right since you already have an HDTV network that you can easily integrate into the site.)
I hope you give it some serious thought because its a good move for you. I could just see the headlines now Mark Cuban buys youtube for what he says is a wholesale price. I’ll let you guess what number that price is.

Jamie