Why Google Wanted a YouTube Lawsuit 105
An anonymous reader writes "After YouTube was purchased for $1.6 Billion, there was rampant speculation that Google would soon be waist-deep in billion dollar lawsuits. Despite the enormous liability issues, Google purchased YouTube for a mind-numbing sum, leaving many doubters wondering if Google considered all of costs involved. A theory has been put forth explaining what Google may have been thinking when it bought the company." From the article "Letting YouTube fight this battle alone with their own lawyers might have resulted in a very public and unnecessary loss that would have crippled Google's video ambitions and possibly caused collateral damage to a bunch of related industries (especially search)." In short, the author argues that Google had a lot more to lose had it kept away from YouTube and let the old-media companies crush it with lawsuits."
not likely (Score:5, Interesting)
Google could have filed amicus briefings on behalf of the defendant (they did so a couple years ago when yahoo was being sued).
But the proposition is backwards. youtube had no money or revenue. Google has both. That's a big red "sue me" sign stapled on their back.
Re:Bad deal (Score:5, Interesting)
The thing is, I'm not sure it will go to their plans, or turn out the way they want. They want a fair use ruling that says as long as they comply with take-down notices, they are free and clear despite making money off of copyrighted content (ad impressions until a video is taken down).
A favorable fair-use will basically cement their (and many others') position that indexing and news indexing/aggregation is legal under fair-use laws. An unfavorable ruling, depending on the judges' wording, could be used as very high-powered ammunition against it by companies that think Google News and other services are "stealing" content. It could also spur unintelligent legislation regarding fair-use.
I'm divided. I want fair-use to be very clear under the law, but I don't think what Google/YouTube is doing is right. Slapping users on the wrists and deleting infringing videos obviously isn't enough to deter infringement.
Righttttttt (Score:3, Interesting)
Its far more likely Google wanted to be a dominant player in a market other than search so badly they forked out the $1.6 billion knowing a lawsuit would likely follow if they could not negotiate a quick settlement and apparently in the process overvalued not just youtube but also the amount of clout they hold with the content providers.
Re:Amicus curiae (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why not just pay for the lawyers? (Score:5, Interesting)
There are two issues with this though:
1) Google has no incentive to continue on the fight, other than their own personal liability on Google Video, and considering it is almost the same thing you may as well own the other company. In the M$ SCO case, it's plaintiff not defendant that M$ is supporting.
2) Iff Google spent a tonne of cash on YouTube in defence and won, YouTube would undoubtedly be worth a lot more and likely be a prime candidate for purchase as their liability aspects had been tried out in court.
My $0.02