Video Update: Praise and Future Problems For Myspace, CastTV, YouTube
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | October 3, 2006 | Share This
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Today News Corp announced two new Myspace additions:
> Milkround, the UK version of Simply Hired, has been acquired to help support Myspace Jobs.
> More TV shows will be available through FOX’s ‘Full Throttle’ service. Supported by in-show advertising, HDTV streams of programs like Bones, Vanished, Prison Break, and more are available on the FOX Myspace page.
On the subject of streaming videos, TechCrunch announced the release of a new video search service, CastTV. CastTV generates better search results by extracting metadata from multiple aggregators, for-pay services, and the general web. Search can be filtered for price, title, network, or showtime. Unlike other video search engines, this one is connected to iTunes and gives users the option to include or disclude user-generated content.
Copyright issues are heating up for YouTube, following the controversial words of Mark Cuban that bode warning for investors. Yesterday, Forrester analysts chimed in, “YouTube will get sued. And it will lose.” While many disagree with the analysts’ unfair comparison of YouTube to Napster, it will only take one media giant to swamp the young company with court fees.
Unlike Napster, however, YouTube is currently protected by the ‘safe harbor’ section of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Safe Harbor claims that web-hosting services are NOT responsible for content posted by customers. Copyright issues are instead dealt with on a “notice and takedown” basis, to which YouTube has thus far complied. The problem with Safe Harbor, however, is that it only protects websites that do not “receive a financial benefit directly attributable to the infringing activity” – in other words, as soon as YouTube starts to reap the benefits of pre-roll advertising, it will be fair game for lawsuits. In an effort to “find a model that works for everyone”, YouTube is scrambling to develop technology that can identify copyrighted content and provide monetary compensation to copyright owners. CEO Chad Hurley hopes that YouTube’s deal with Warner Music will serve as model for future agreements with other media companies.
In the meantime, the British Library has issued a Manifesto (PDF) for digital rights management. The Manifesto seeks a way to “embody cultural and intellectual memory” while recognizing the “opportunities and threats presented by digital to the publishing industries.” Though written in the interest of the British Library archives, the Manifesto speaks to an ever-increasing need for standardization and a settlement of terms between copyright owners and content publishers.
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