Coming soon to a you tube near you
It is ironic that a medium such as you tube, which allows everyone to display their creativity by uploading videos, could end up killing creativity in the entertainment domain. A spate of lawsuits against the medium owned by google for copyright infringement threatens the fragile equilibrium between content owners and public sharing sites.
Hollywood studios such as Viacom have sued you tube in the past. The latest to join the chorus of protest against you tube is Indian music firm T series which has accused the firm of putting the music of many hit movies on line, in some instances even before the movies are released in theaters. You tube is not alone of course in carrying copyrighted material other popular r sites include veoh, go fish and daily motion which are gaining popularity in the western world though are not as popular in India yet. T series is also having a court battle with Indian web site rediff on the same line accusing the web site of serious copyright violations.
There can be little justification if copyright is infringed in so blatant a manner in the name of technology. After all free market depends on monetary incentive for creativity. What happens with you tube and other video community sharing sites is that they pay no royalty and yet put up original content online. The technology has made the whole thing ridiculously easy since anyone from any computer can upload virtually anything. If every form of entertainment from music to movies feature on a free service Internet site it can end up killing the entire entertainment sector. To an extent this has already happened to the music industry with technologies such as rapid share and music file swapping threatening and even whipping out some firms. It also threatens the web strategy of entrainment companies who may have plans to leverage the Internet as a source of revenues for original content.
In its defense you tube has consistently maintained that it is a service provider. That it does not create or upload the offending content on its own or for profit. In the US copyright law there are provisions, which defend this right of service providers as long as the said providers remove the offending sequence on request. Intriguingly you Tube also sells software, which will allow firms to know if their software is being put online.
It remains to be seen what course the case will take in India. The court has reportedly provided interim relief to T series and asked you tube to take down all offending copyrighted content. The fact that the lawsuits have been filed not under the IT act but copyright act may queer the pitch for You Tube. T- series has argued that you tube in fact does make money form the content since it runs the lucrative pay per click ad routine of goggle on its site. In the end both the service providers such as you tube and content providing media firms like T series will have to come to grips with a formula, which allows for right of way in copyright content while leaving user generated content alone. Without better copyright management You tube’s lawyers may remain as busy - and need tube at least as much innovation as the geeks that designed this fantastic web site in the first place.
It is ironic that a medium such as you tube, which allows everyone to display their creativity by uploading videos, could end up killing creativity in the entertainment domain. A spate of lawsuits against the medium owned by google for copyright infringement threatens the fragile equilibrium between content owners and public sharing sites.
Hollywood studios such as Viacom have sued you tube in the past. The latest to join the chorus of protest against you tube is Indian music firm T series which has accused the firm of putting the music of many hit movies on line, in some instances even before the movies are released in theaters. You tube is not alone of course in carrying copyrighted material other popular r sites include veoh, go fish and daily motion which are gaining popularity in the western world though are not as popular in India yet. T series is also having a court battle with Indian web site rediff on the same line accusing the web site of serious copyright violations.
There can be little justification if copyright is infringed in so blatant a manner in the name of technology. After all free market depends on monetary incentive for creativity. What happens with you tube and other video community sharing sites is that they pay no royalty and yet put up original content online. The technology has made the whole thing ridiculously easy since anyone from any computer can upload virtually anything. If every form of entertainment from music to movies feature on a free service Internet site it can end up killing the entire entertainment sector. To an extent this has already happened to the music industry with technologies such as rapid share and music file swapping threatening and even whipping out some firms. It also threatens the web strategy of entrainment companies who may have plans to leverage the Internet as a source of revenues for original content.
In its defense you tube has consistently maintained that it is a service provider. That it does not create or upload the offending content on its own or for profit. In the US copyright law there are provisions, which defend this right of service providers as long as the said providers remove the offending sequence on request. Intriguingly you Tube also sells software, which will allow firms to know if their software is being put online.
It remains to be seen what course the case will take in India. The court has reportedly provided interim relief to T series and asked you tube to take down all offending copyrighted content. The fact that the lawsuits have been filed not under the IT act but copyright act may queer the pitch for You Tube. T- series has argued that you tube in fact does make money form the content since it runs the lucrative pay per click ad routine of goggle on its site. In the end both the service providers such as you tube and content providing media firms like T series will have to come to grips with a formula, which allows for right of way in copyright content while leaving user generated content alone. Without better copyright management You tube’s lawyers may remain as busy - and need tube at least as much innovation as the geeks that designed this fantastic web site in the first place.
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