Google's $1.65 Billion Purchase of YouTube-High Risk investment?

Google puchased YouTube for $1.65 billion dollars very recently. Funny, because the last I heard, google wanted nothing to do with the new media, online community, video sharing digital part of the internet. They claimed that their only goal was to improve search results, and create a better portal with which to find information on the web.

Sure, Youtube is very popular right now-wait, that's an understatement. YouTube beat out MySpace in the last top 100 sites on the web, so it's pretty good. But, some say YouTube hasn't been around long enough to feel the burden of legal issues, and that much of the videos on YouTube have been previously copyrighted and are uploaded illegally. Can Google afford this kind of liability? Are they prepared for it?

Want to read two smart people discuss the issue?
Read an ever appropriate email convo script from "The WallStreet Journal" where Harvard law professor John Palfrey discusses the issue with economist Stan Liebowitz.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116049721244288215-yqmQXzM4PeNYW2VkZHOTq6ijTII_20071010.html?mod=blogs