Content giants join IP action against Google

AN orderly queue of content giants seeking to deliver Google and its subsidiary YouTube a legal punch is growing, with UK Premier League soccer among a group to joint the class action.

English Premier League Soccer, music publishers Bourne & Co, the Rugby Football League, the Finnish Football League and various boxing promoters, authors and other video content producers have joined a class action against YouTube in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The content providers argue that YouTube has encouraged copyright breaches through its video-sharing site, and that the company’s entire business model is based on breaches of intellectual property law.

Viacom, the US media giant and owner of the MTV music network, sued Google and YouTube in May for US$1 billion, alleging copyright breaches.

Google and YouTube have denied the charges of content providers, saying the companies all misunderstand the nature of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which seeks to balance the rights of content owners with that of users and the internet services they use.

Premier League soccer spokesman Dan Johnson said the organisation was pleased that so many companies have joined the action.

“The clear and growing message to YouTube and Google is simple: their callous and opportunistic business model is contrary to right, contrary to law, and must and will be stopped,” Mr Johnson said.

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YouTube to develop phone with LG Electronics

SOUTH KOREAN phone maker LG Electronics has signed a deal with Google unit YouTube to design a mobile that lets users view and upload video to the service.

LG Electronics said in a statement it the new mobile phone model would let its users upload, view and share video-clips more freely, and without having to use a computer.

Users will be able to upload video shot on the camera phone directly, without having to use a computer or separate broadband service.

“LG Electronics will unveil the mobile handset that fully supports the YouTube service for the first time in Europe in the second half of this year,” LG Electonics said in a statement.

LG Electronics signed a global strategic alliance with YouTube parent Google in March. The latest announcement is an extension of work being done under that arrangement.

YouTube is by far the world’s most popular video-sharing site, attracting more than 100 million users every day.

Google acquired YouTube in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion.

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Apple to deliver YouTube to TV

APPLE has signed a deal with Google’s YouTube unit that will deliver the internet video catalog to television screens via the Apple TV set-top box.

Starting this month, Apple TV will wirelessly stream videos directly from YouTube and play them on a user’s widescreen TV. Using Apple TV’s interface and Apple Remote, viewers can browse, find and watch free videos from YouTube in the comfort of their living room.

“This is the first time users can easily browse, find and watch YouTube videos right from their living room couch, and it’s really, really fun,” said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.

“YouTube is a worldwide sensation, and Apple TV is bringing it directly from the Internet onto the widescreen TV in your living room,” Mr Jobs said.

Thousands of the current and popular YouTube videos would be available on Apple TV at launch, with YouTube adding thousands more each week until the full YouTube catalog is available.

Naturally, nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and pundits are already saying Apple may find itself in the middle of the copyright row between YouTube and a host of content providers.

In March, media giant Viacom (owners of MTV and a host of other media properties) sued YouTube for US$1 billion for alledged breaches of copyright.

Viacom’s suit complains bitterly that YouTube did not adequately police what its users uploaded to the site – and consequently it content frequently breached the copyright of others.

Apple also launched this week its iTunes Plus service, which allows music downloads that have no copy-protection that limits how consumers can use the songs. iTunes Plus features artists from EMI, which include Coldplay and The Rolling Stones.

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Google moves to sort YouTube copyright mess

GOOGLE has announced it is working on a tool that will let big content owners like television networks and movie studios more quickly remove their copyrighted material from the YouTube website.

Development of the “Claim Your Content” tool has taken on greater sense of urgency since media giant Viacom sued Google’s YouTube ubsidiary.

Claim You Content would appear as a tool button on web pages alongside video material uploaded by users to let content owners lodge complaints to get copyrighted material removed from YouTube faster.

Google chairman and chief executive Eric Schmidt said the tool would let the content owners automate the take-down process.
“It is not a filtering system and doesn't block downloads; it makes it much quicker for us to remove copyrighted content,” Mr Schmidt said.
It is not clear whether the measures outlined by Google will be enough to placate Viacom, which earlier this month launched a US$1 billion (A$1.2 billion) lawsuit against YouTube for breaches of copyright.

Google acquired YouTube in a stock-swap deal for US$1.6 billion last year.

Viacom has complained YouTube leaves the onus for copyright protection on the content owners, rather than YouTube as publisher.

YouTube communications chief Julie Supan said the new tool does not itself identify copyright material, because it can’t identify what copyright material the content owners want on YouTube, and the material it doesn’t.

Rather, the company is testing identification technology that helps content owners more identify and locate their content on YouTube, and then give them the ability to either request the material be removed or to leave it up for promotional and marketing purposes, she said.

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Viacom lands $1b punch on YouTube, Google

GLOBAL media giant Viacom has finally had enough of Web upstart YouTube and its parent Google, slapping the companies with a US$1 billion lawsuit for “massive intentional copyright infringement.”

Viacom also applied to a New York district court for an injunction to stop YouTube from allowing Viacom copyrighted material to appear on its site.

The complaint contends that nearly 160,000 “unauthorised” clips from Viacom television programming have been available on YouTube and had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times.

Viacom the Google and YouTube strategy had been to avoid taking steps to curtail infringement on their sites, shifting the burden and cost of monitoring YouTube to the victims of its infringement.

“There is no question that YouTube and Google are continuing to take the fruit of our efforts without permission and destroying enormous value in the process,” Viacom said in a statement.”

“YouTube is a significant, for-profit organisation that has built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others’ creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google.

“Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws,” the company said.

Viacom said YouTube’s actions were “in stark contrast” to other content distributors, and that “after a great deal of unproductive negotiation” on the issue the company was taking action to stop YouTube and Google “continuing to steal value.”

Google says it is confident that YouTube has respected the rights of content owners, and that the company has also given those owners opportunities to create new audiences among younger viewers.

Google's General Counsel Kent Walker said “YouTube has become even more popular since we took down Viacom's material. We think that's a testament to the draw of the user-generated
content on YouTube.”

“We've been very successful forging thousands of successful partnerships with content owners – like Warner Music, Sony/BMG, Universal Music, BBC, and the NBA – interested in finding new audiences for their programming,” Mr Walker said.

“These partnerships offer the YouTube community access to some of the best content in the world, ranging from entertainment and sports to politics and news. And we're only getting started.”

Google acquired YouTube for US$1.6 billion last November as a natural extension in the video space of its own search business.

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YouTube banned in Victoria schools

THE Victorian Government has banned the popular video-sharing website YouTube from the state’s public schools as one of a series of measure to stamp out “cyber-bullying”.

Education Services Minister Jacinta Allan said student access to YouTube and similar video-sharing sites had been blocked indefinitely at all 1600 government schools.

“The Bracks Government has never tolerated bullying in schools and this zero tolerance approach extends to the online world,” Ms Allan said.

“We do not tolerate bullying on any level – be it physical, verbal or cyber bullying.”

The YouTube ban stems from an incident that caused public outrage last year in which the site hosted a video that showed students engaged in sexual activity with a teenage girl. The students then urinated on the girl.

The video was clearly in breach of US-based YouTube’s own terms of use that bans unlawful or offensive material. But despite the public outcry and a direct approach from the Victorian Police, it took three months for the video to be removed from the site.

“All students have the right to learn in a safe and supportive learning environment – this includes making students’ experience of the virtual world of learning as safe and productive as possible,” Ms Allan said.

Banning access to sites in schools was just one part of protecting children, Ms Allan said, acknowledging that the initiative did nothing to stop kids posting and viewing such material outside of the classroom.

“While schools have an important role to play in monitoring students’ use of the internet and trying to stamp out cyber bullying, it’s a shared responsibility between parents, school councils and the school community,” she said.

Ms Allan also said schools will also be required to amend their anti-bullying policies by the end of this year as outlined in the Safe Schools are Effective Schools strategy released last year.

“The world is changing and new websites are springing up every day,” Ms Allan said.

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