Thursday, May 15, 2008

YouTube videos and the Fair Use argument...

While in Seoul , South Korea, last week at the annual Seoul Digital Forum, I talked with Viacom Executive Chairman Sumner Redstone about his stance on copyrights and YouTube . As you may remember, Viacom has a standing billion-dollar suit against YouTube over copyright infringement.

In his keynote speech at the Seoul conference, Redstone complained about piracy and made his position clear on the matter: He's against it, and all arguments as to its value in modern marketing are beside the point. What's his is his, period.

That wasn't the stance taken by the other conference attendees, though, and it was interesting to listen to the discussion when Redstone was not in the room. Essentially everyone agreed on the following points: Piracy is a fact of life, and you have to find ways of incorporating it into your overall marketing strategy; also, video clips are good for business and help promote a product or show. New business models must be developed for the new media age. I have made many of these arguments myself. More...

See also: French TV to sue YouTube for 100,000,000 Euros...
And this: YouTube, a force to be reckoned with?

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