YouTube being sued for $1 Billion
No one's been ragging on Mark Cuban lately, and that's because his prophecy about GooTube being slapped with lawsuits turned out to be right. Viacom, YouTube's worst enemy, is taking the video-sharing site to court to the tune of $1 billion. That's more than half of what the company was purchased for when Google decided to take on the responsibility of the adolecent video hub.
The tension between Viacom and YouTube has become rather thick lately, escalating on a weekly basis. The promises YouTube made to the media industry have yet to pan out, and other video sharing sites are taking note, striving for extra measures to ensure that they do not fall in the same trap as YouTube. Other media companies have perked their ears as well, as the larger networks have taken a tendency to align with Viacom, noting that YouTube's copyright infringement issues have yet to be settled.
While YouTube claims that they have yet to receive the lawsuit from Viacom, the ensuing war is getting bloodier by the day. As long as YouTube remains non-compliant, they will continue to be threatened by established media. This can't be good for Google, which is trying to permeate the old media realm in what seems to be another advertising takeover. They've recently added printed and radio ads to their list of services, and are no doubt anxious to take their simplistic and self-serving model to new heights.
Though YouTube tried to avoid this very consequence by making preemptive deals with several media companies, the walls are now tumbling down around YouTube. Will this end in defeat for YouTube, placing them in the same situation as Napster? Or will this simply be enough to get YouTube's attention and compliance?
Comments
I'm wondering if this is going to backfire on Viacom.... I don't frequent Youtube a lot, but I'm a huge fan of John Stewart and Steven Colbert, and I would have loved to get access to their podcast. It was actually one of the first podcasts I ever searched for.
Well, I found it, and much to my disgust they were charging TWO DOLLARS PER EPISODE. Absolutely rediculous. Getting a month subscription would cost me over $30.00 a month. My monthy cable bill isn't that much. I'd be more than willing to pay a reasonable amount for these shows, say $.50 an episode or something, but for the cost they're asking I'll set my VCR, (Though I don't think I can remember how...) or simply go without.
Viacom claims that this billion dollar suit is justified as they've lost that much in revenue. Well frankly I think they need to wake the hell up and re-assess the value of their product before they make statements like this.
But Viacom is continuing to say that they're increasing their own objectives by steering clear of YouTube, and YouTube says the opposite.