AfterDawn: News

YouTube's copyrighted content may be downfall says analyst

Video sharing community YouTube.Com has grown rapidly in recent times by providing users the ability to post and share videos with a worldwide audience. In fact, it's the third most viewed site on the Internet after MySpace and Yahoo!. However, with the wealth of copyrighted material available on the site, one analyst believes that imminent litigation from the entertainment industry may see YouTube go the way of Napster.

"I don't believe they can avoid a lawsuit and maintain their popularity," said Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research.



Out of the 100 million videos watched daily on the site, an estimated 90 percent are in breach copyright laws, according to analysts.

The boss of Universal Music Group, the world's biggest record company, recently hit out at YouTube, along with MySpace, claiming, "The poster child for [user-generated media] sites are MySpace and YouTube.. We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars."

However, the company has inked a deal recently to legally distribute the music videos of music industry heavyweight Warner Music Group - the sort of company which may have the most reason to go after them in court.

Forrester believes that YouTube needs to make more moves like these, or it's going to be a lot more difficult to maintain its user community. Bernoff also added that it would be in the best interests of YouTube to eliminate the mass of copyrighted material and only allow content that doesn't violate copyrights.

Source:
Newsfactor

Written by: Ben Reid @ 6 Oct 2006 8:53

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• 19 comments

• MightyOne

  Wouldn't it be nice if all p2p file sharers world wide could find some way to donate $20. Then...buy a small island....make it a separate country...and place a sh*tLoad of FileServers or Torrent Tracker in this new country with a population of about 10....be pretty awesome. I'd pay for subscription.
  
  Moral: U burn us with high prices....we burn u with No Prices !!!

  6.10.2006 09:48 #1

• ZippyDSM

  No its downfall wil be from Greedy mindless companies not willing to see that free advertising is still a good thing,it doesn't take much to make a contract to have only allow clips from higher end cable shows,but in the end they can't stop the free broadcast of information whats next closing down script and lyric sites oh wait..closing down sites because it doesn't have a NEWS License and thus cant show information......
  
  As for moding their content and removing CP'd videos THEY ARE you stupid fcks....the only way to perfectly mod the content would be to ok each video by checking it first if they do that people will quickly go to other sites that are less corporate friendly and most likely in countries they don't reign in

  6.10.2006 09:48 #2

• ZippyDSM

  MightyOne
  Wouldn't do any good,corporations private secruity forces could just raid in under grounds it violates their rule of the world...

  6.10.2006 09:49 #3

• halfhere

  I believe that you tube will infact go down hill if this does go into effect. However, like mentioned all the time, one site goes down then 2 more pop up.

  6.10.2006 10:07 #4

• ZippyDSM

  halfhere
  youtube can only ride its fame for so long before the greedy corporations make a crappy pay services out of it.
  when news videos start havening blurred out labels and tags that are on billboards and tee shirts thats a sign of the end days....

  6.10.2006 10:11 #5

• GrayArea

  The boss of Universal Music Group, the world's biggest record company recently claimed, "These (shakes magic 8 ball, reads names of next victims) are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars!"
  
  It's really quite simple, The Big media companys really believe that the world just plain owes them brazillions of money. What they produce or provide is irrelevant, we just OWE THEM, get it?

  6.10.2006 10:13 #6

• georgeluv

  they already legalized file sharing in france, all you have to do is pay 8 bucks a month thats doled out to the copywrite owners. granted, thats total comunisum... but hey, looks like chinas enjoying comunisum pretty well.
  
  and as for the servewr island, its called eastern europe and africa.
  
  once the tor network gets updated so that it can handel high bandwidth the era of copywrites will be over.

  6.10.2006 11:02 #7

• ZippyDSM

  georgeluv
  while at the same time makeign backups illict gotta love france they cant make up ther minds!

  6.10.2006 11:09 #8

• alanford

  copyright laws must be reviewed!

  6.10.2006 11:37 #9

• ZippyDSM

  CP and IP laws need to change so that if you are not making a defined profit off or massively distributioning it(IE:offline) they can not sue you into the ground......
  
  2ndly a defined profit is more 3 times more than the cost of running the site in question.

  6.10.2006 11:44 #10

• ShBm

  I've been watching clips from Kids in the Hall recently, and that alone has sparked an interest into buying the box set coming out.
  
  I think they're missing a big opportunity.

  6.10.2006 13:07 #11

• midnightm

  I watch clips of the OFFICE all the time, plus whatever random video I can find. I love you tube.

  6.10.2006 13:08 #12

• ZippyDSM

  the Mafiaa is at it again they decimated net radio now they want to kill new vid/clips and such its sad to see them destroy such great sites...

  6.10.2006 13:43 #13

• Steve83

  If these sites were smart, they'd start calling themselves "NEWS" sites.
  
  "Yeah, we're just reporting on that new/old video/TV show/movie and that's why we have clips of it on our site. And we archive all our articles online so they're available forever; that's why that clip will always be available for free download. Now tell me something about the 1st Amendment..."
  
  :-)

  7.10.2006 10:09 #14

• Steve83

  "...oh, and BTW: we employ THE ENTIRE WORLD as our reporting staff - that's why anyone can post those clips. We're so happy that they all work for free, but that's our business model, and it seems to work!"

  7.10.2006 10:10 #15

• gogochar

  Why go after YouTube? Why not just make music free... period?

  7.10.2006 14:00 #16

• ZippyDSM

  gogochar
  its not just music on youtube its CO/IPs of all kinds and the Mafiaa just cant let them all go...

  7.10.2006 14:18 #17

• DVDBack23

  Quote:Bernoff also added that it would be in the best interests of YouTube to eliminate the mass of copyrighted material and only allow content that doesn't violate copyrights. well they can do that, and then ill enjoy the 4 videos left on youtube, lol

  8.10.2006 17:45 #18

• bertf

  if 90% are in breach of copyright laws there can be only one conclusion - the copyright laws MUST be wrong.

  10.10.2006 01:55 #19