Viacom Sues Google for 1 Billion Dollars!

See Funny YouTube Video at: Boycott Viacom

We saw it coming Google, did you? We've been trying to keep up with these massive media moguls mergers, acquisitions and popularity. You might say that the internet news enthusiasts could have predicted this coming along, but with that said, we have to assume that Google kind of knew it too.

Read some past articles,

Google and YouTube Face Copyright Infringement

Google Makes Empty Promises Concerning YouTube

Google Copyright Infringement, At Least One Lawsuit

To get an idea of some of the latter news that that has plagued Google since Google acquired Youtube.com

Well, Viacom finally laid down the law, suing Google for 1$ Billion. Wow, now that's not chump change, even for Google. And, Google is losing money on Youtube, even up until this very moment. (You can read the latest article on that if you click the link)

Internet law, while clear, is a growing facet of our world, and has it continues to complicate, grow and change, there will be some serious lessons learned. Lesson learned #1 to all those big companies looking to purchase an internet community hoping to triple your exposure and advertising dollar:

A 1.76$ billion purchase, might double in end price due to the rising interest in the internet, and you might just be the next example of a new internet smack down on laws.

Apparently Viacom was in the works of making some deals with Google concerning their all too obvious exploitation of clips, pieces and creative work from some of Viacom's major networks:
MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Nickelodeon.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW:


Turns out those "deals" fell through, and Viacom asked (for lack of a better word) Google and Youtube to remove more than 100,000 copyright owned videos from their site. Google agreed and removed the videos. Meanwhile, Viacom found over 50,000 more videos directly violating the creative copyright of their owners.

Enough is enough!

According to MSNBC, and the article I got this news from: Viacom Sues Google
Viacom is saying (all in different contexts of course):

“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.”

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

In Response? Google has said:

“that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders.”

“We will certainly not let this suit become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube and its ability to attract more users, more traffic and build a stronger community,”

Viacom had some things to say. While they have speculated to be threatened by Google and Youtube due to their clear exploitation of the cable network's T.V. shows and pieces, they have also been taking other routes to possibly try competing with the conglomerate. In a news clip from earlier:

T.V. Networks discussing YouTube Rival

Viacom talks about this exactly.

We'll see how this works out, but just so the bad boys know, us internet geeks have been watching this train wreck come into fruition since just about day one. Poor Google, GO US! :)

Google and YouTube Merger...Still In The Hole

The infamous merger of Google and Youtube.com has stirred issues, problems, concerns and interest for internet enthusiasts, investors and hip young video lovers alike.

To read some previous coverage I've done on news concerning the YouTube and Google Bond, check out these posts:

Google's High Risk Youtube Investment

Update: Google and Youtube Face Copyright Infringement

From their struggling copyright issues, to the concern over whether or not YouTube is still the freshest, most popular online video distribution website among the slowly mountaining sites out there offering this service. Joost and Daily Motion to name a few of the possibly competitors in what was once a monopolized industry.

Murdoch has some insight when it comes to investing, but does he know this "industry" as well as it knows itself? I don't think any "consumer" of the YouTube site could tell you whether or not it will be their website of choice in a week, a month, a year. Why? Because when something better comes out, they'll switch just as fast as you can say, " . com"

While Youtube and Google are currently in deep. And, when I say deep I mean under profit,

"An analyst report last week from Bear Stearns & Co. showed that YouTube had revenue of $15 million in 2006, which means Google paid more than 100 times the video site's annual intake."

they don't feel there is yet a reason to start selling their personal shares of Google...Duh.

They're doing what they can, cutting deals and working with their assets. To read more about this story: Google And Youtube Merger

Youtube Will Pay Users for Their Videos!

On Saturday (January 27) Chad Hurley, Co-Founder of Youtube.com said they are going to start sharing their ad revenue with the millions of users posting videos to their site.

His proposed plan of paying Youtube users for their submitted videos, is opening up due to the expanding growth of Youtube's user base. He is quoted as saying, early on in the Youtube years, that paying users for the submitted video content would only instill in Youtube lovers the motive to make money and not their interest in videos.

By attaching ads to each submitted video on Youtube, they will share with the Youtube user the profit/revenue made by those advertisements. No news on the exact amount a user could make through submitted videos, but it will probably depend largely on the popularity of the video, the user's standing within the Youtube community and the subject of the Youtube video.

Bloggers and internet users alike are finding new ways to earn profit through their involvement within internet communities. Sites like Blogitive and PayPerPost are paying bloggers to write or submit video content on specific companies. Associated Content broke new ground in paying their Content Producers for each submitted article.

Advertising is becoming a normal and everyday term used by anyone who is using the internet and the web as a means to make money online. Now, even Youtube obsessed video lovers are going to start biting of the advertising pie.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out and what is next in the world of internet marketing, advertising, blogs and user submitted content and videos!

TV Networks Discussing YouTube Rival

An anonymous reader writes "Reuters is carrying a story indicating that NBC, CBS, Fox, and Viacom are considering banding together to work on a competitive video-hosting site. The goal would be to provide an alternative to Google's YouTube, and presumably direct some revenue in their direction." From the article: "While a deal is still far off, the four media companies envision a jointly owned site that would be the primary Web source for videos from their television networks, the paper said in an online report on Wsj.com, citing people close to the situation. The companies aim to cash in on the fast-growing market of Web video advertising and have also discussed building a Web video player that could play clips, the Journal said. "