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YouTube
Dick Parsons, Time Warner CEO & Chairman, revealed in a
British newspaper that the company will continue to pursue copyright
infringement complaints against YouTube. This is the first potential pitfall for
Google, who acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion on Monday.
Time Warner appears poised to offer Google its first real test in the copyright
infringement arena regarding the search provider's latest acquisition, YouTube.
In an interview published in Friday's issue of The Guardian, Parsons stated:
"You can assume we're in negotiations with YouTube and that those negotiations
will be kicked up to the Google level in the hope that we can get to some
acceptable position."
Parson's denied that Time Warner's decision to continue its pursuit concerning
copyright issues against YouTube was influenced in any way by Monday's
acquisition of the company by Google.
Parsons went on to defend Time Warner's position by elaborating, "We were going
to pursue it anyway. If you let one thing ignore your rights as an owner it
makes it much more difficult to defend those rights when the next guy comes
along."
However, Time Warner has not ruled out the possibility of a distribution
agreement with the social video provider. Parsons adds, "We'd like to have our
content displayed on these platforms, but on a basis that it respects our rights
as the owner of that content."
Both Google and YouTube inked distribution deals earlier this week with CBS,
Sony BMG and Warner Music, which is no longer affiliated with Time Warner.
This is the first of what experts claim could be string of legal issues
concerning content submitted by YouTube users.
YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, however, seeks to silence the skeptics in The
Guardian piece. "We're committed to developing tools to identify the content and
monetize it so [content owners] can have a new outlet for their content."
In 2005, Google invested $1 billion in America Online, owned by Time Warner. In
return, the company received a five percent share of the Warner subsidiary.
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