[Dixielandjazz] Why some YouTube videos have disappeared

[Steve Barbone]

Bill Haesler reported on Feb 2 that he could not access a YouTube video that
others had seen on Feb 1. Janie McCue Lynch, posted a web site with a
possible reason. Following her lead, here is the NY Times Story version this
morning, about it. Basically 100,000 clips were removed from the YouTube
library yesterday.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


Viacom Tells YouTube: Hands Off

NY TIMES - By GERALDINE FABRIKANT and SAUL HANSELL - February 3, 2007

In a sign of the growing tension between old-line media and the new Internet
behemoths, Viacom, the parent company of MTV and Comedy Central, demanded
yesterday that YouTube, the video-sharing Web site owned by Google, remove
more than 100,000 clips of its programming.

Viacom, along with other major media companies, including the News
Corporation and NBC Universal, has become increasingly frustrated with
YouTube as it has amassed a vast library of copyrighted clips, placed on the
site by its users. 

While such companies regularly ask YouTube to remove their material,
Viacom¹s demand, which it disclosed in a statement circulated by e-mail, was
the most militant and public move of its kind so far.

As it has with the similar request from other companies, Google removed the
Viacom clips from the YouTube site yesterday.

The dispute underscored the tense dance that major media companies are doing
with Google, which bought YouTube for $1.65 billion last October. Google
hopes to strike deals that will give it the rights to mainstream programming
and also wipe away its potential liability for any violations of copyright
law by YouTube so far.

Despite intense negotiations in recent months, Google has not been able to
announce any such deals with media companies. YouTube is supported by
advertising, but in most cases it does not share that revenue with copyright
holders. 

Viacom is particularly unhappy because so many of its shows, like ³The Daily
Show With Jon Stewart,² a YouTube favorite, appeal to the young audiences
who visit the site.

³We cannot continue to let them profit from our programming,² Philippe P.
Dauman, Viacom¹s chief executive, said in an interview. Mr. Dauman said that
Viacom had been in discussions with Google for months, but that Google kept
delaying and did not make what Viacom saw as a serious offer.

David Eun, a vice president for content partnerships at Google, said that
his company had been ³very serious² about the talks, but that the companies
could not agree on financial terms. ³We put in a lot of time to figure out
what would be a mutually beneficial deal,² he said.

A Viacom spokesman said the company had repeatedly asked YouTube to filter
out its programming automatically, but that Google had not responded.

³They choose not to filter out copyrighted content, ³ said the spokesman,
Carl D. Folta. He added that the company apparently had the technology to
filter out pornography and hateful material, which is rarely seen on
YouTube.

Chad Hurley, the co-founder and chief executive of YouTube, said the company
was still working on its filtering technology. He said it had agreed to use
it to identify and possibly remove copyrighted material from Warner Music,
and it would discuss a similar arrangement with Viacom as part of a broader
deal.

Mr. Folta said he found that stand unacceptable. ³They are saying we will
only protect your content if you do a deal with us ‹ if not, we will steal
it.²

Whether YouTube is stealing content by serving up clips of copyrighted
programs is very much up for debate. Like most big Internet companies,
Google says it is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, so long
as it removes material whenever a copyright owner requests it.

John G. Palfrey Jr. , the executive director of the Berkman Center for
Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, said Google may well be able to
use this defense, but ³I don¹t think the law is entirely clear.² And if
Google loses, ³the damages could get astronomically high,² he said.

Viacom¹s move comes at a time when it and other media companies have
contemplated creating a service to rival YouTube. There have been
off-again-on-again negotiations among a variety of companies, including the
News Corporation, NBC Universal and the Walt Disney Company.

Viacom¹s cable networks, meanwhile, are increasingly putting clips from
their programs on their own Web sites and selling advertising on them.

In the face of uncertainty, media companies have taken different approaches
to YouTube. For the last year, NBC Universal has demanded that the site
remove most clips of its material, other than a small set provided by NBC
itself. Others, like CBS, have largely allowed their content to remain on
YouTube. CBS has struck a deal to provide some clips to YouTube and share in
the advertising revenue associated with it.

It was not clear yesterday how Viacom¹s demand might affect the rest of the
industry and whether other media companies would follow suit.

Andrew Butcher, a spokesman for the News Corporation, which owns the Fox
television network and the social networking site MySpace, said his company
supported Viacom¹s move. ³They¹ve got every right to protect their content
in whatever way they deem appropriate,² Mr. Butcher said. ³So far we¹ve been
dealing with YouTube and others on a case-by-case basis.²

Reports have been circulating in the industry that Google had offered to pay
$100 million a year for the use of Viacom¹s programming.

Mr. Dauman of Viacom denied there had been a deal on the table. He said
Viacom ³never had any kind of an agreement with Google that it could say yes
to,² adding: ³There was not enough to be a detailed offer. They have shown
no sense of urgency to enter into an agreement with anyone.²

Some analysts said the removal demand was simply a business tactic on
Viacom¹s part. 

³This is a negotiating strategy to get paid, and I think both sides need a
middle ground,² said Michael Nathanson, a media analyst at Sanford C.
Bernstein & Company. ³Both sides have clear needs in this negotiation. What
they are arguing about is price.²

Viacom¹s demand was ³a risk worth taking,² Mr. Nathanson said. He and others
pointed out that the music industry was once afraid to take a similarly
aggressive stance when its product appeared on the Napster music-sharing
service. ³If content is available free and it is tolerated, it erodes your
core business,² Mr. Nathanson said.

But others said the move could hurt Viacom if young YouTube users become
angry when they upload clips to the site and realize that Viacom is
insisting that they be removed. Yesterday, Google tried to position Viacom¹s
move as hostile toward YouTube users.

³The biggest feeling we have right now is regret that Viacom may miss out on
the chance to interact with the YouTube community,² Mr. Eun said.

The effort to integrate old and new media has made some inroads. Just a few
months ago, Viacom and Google were cozying up so successfully that Viacom
struck a deal to have Google distribute clips from its shows on its Google
Video service. The deal included an arrangement for the two companies to
share revenue from adjacent advertising. Mr. Dauman characterized that deal
yesterday as an ³experiment.²

Richard Siklos contributed reporting.