[Dixielandjazz] Why some YouTube videos have disappeared

[Charles Suhor]

Thanks, Steve. This answers in part my question about the youtube and 
permissions.

Charlie Suhor


On Feb 3, 2007, at 9:52 AM, Steve Barbone wrote:

> 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,
> Viacom’s 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 “The 
> Daily
> Show With Jon Stewart,” a YouTube favorite, appeal to the young 
> audiences
> who visit the site.
>
> “We cannot continue to let them profit from our programming,” Philippe 
> P.
> Dauman, Viacom’s 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 “very serious” about the talks, but that the 
> companies
> could not agree on financial terms. “We put in a lot of time to figure 
> out
> what would be a mutually beneficial deal,” he said.
>
> A Viacom spokesman said the company had repeatedly asked YouTube to 
> filter
> out its programming automatically, but that Google had not responded.
>
> “They choose not to filter out copyrighted content, “ 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. “They are saying we 
> will
> only protect your content if you do a deal with us — if not, we will 
> steal
> it.”
>
> 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 “I don’t think the law is entirely clear.” And if
> Google loses, “the damages could get astronomically high,” he said.
>
> Viacom’s 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.
>
> Viacom’s 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 Viacom’s 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 Viacom’s move. “They’ve got every right to protect their 
> content
> in whatever way they deem appropriate,” Mr. Butcher said. “So far 
> we’ve been
> dealing with YouTube and others on a case-by-case basis.”
>
> Reports have been circulating in the industry that Google had offered 
> to pay
> $100 million a year for the use of Viacom’s programming.
>
> Mr. Dauman of Viacom denied there had been a deal on the table. He said
> Viacom “never had any kind of an agreement with Google that it could 
> say yes
> to,” adding: “There was not enough to be a detailed offer. They have 
> shown
> no sense of urgency to enter into an agreement with anyone.”
>
> Some analysts said the removal demand was simply a business tactic on
> Viacom’s part.
>
> “This is a negotiating strategy to get paid, and I think both sides 
> need a
> middle ground,” said Michael Nathanson, a media analyst at Sanford C.
> Bernstein & Company. “Both sides have clear needs in this negotiation. 
> What
> they are arguing about is price.”
>
> Viacom’s demand was “a risk worth taking,” 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. “If content is available free and it is tolerated, it erodes 
> your
> core business,” 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 
> Viacom’s
> move as hostile toward YouTube users.
>
> “The biggest feeling we have right now is regret that Viacom may miss 
> out on
> the chance to interact with the YouTube community,” 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 “experiment.”
>
> Richard Siklos contributed reporting.
>
>
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