Ok so video portals are the second coming….. yes, I know. But, hello!?

Seems like every day that goes by I get an email telling me about yet another video portal. From the UK, from Australia, from somewhere on the planet. And their numbers may not look like YouTube yet, but…..

All of these suffer from one BIG vulnerability. Copyright.

And even people who I know from TV who are seasoned producers and directors are not clear on the copyright laws relating to the Internet and video and portals…..

….get the picture…

There is one reality. It is a complex world and there are lots of rights holders.

When you want to clear a piece of footage from a movie or TV show for instance, you need to clear in no particular order the various interests of the music rights holder (copyright in the song, copyright in the performance – that is two for starters). Then you need to get the rights to the footage (movie studio or production company, or network). And of course you need to think now in terms of what the territory is. Then next you need to get clearance from the star. And anyone who had a speaking role (screen actors guild clearance for the US – I have no idea who for films made in other countries – and with respect to made for TV programs, that is someone else again).

Clearly it is a nightmare.

Also clearly regardless of whether Saturday Night Live's audience numbers have increased since YouTube has been the distributor of record for a bunch of new material, there are a lot of interests.

And think about this one! With Revver (and others) advertising a business model that includes consumer created content being remunerated for its contribution with an ad being inserted, it could be argued (and I believe it will) that the content that is being created is in effect an ad. Even thought the ad is separate and is served to the audience based on a whole different set of criteria, if I am a content owner I am going to want to get paid for “Let it be” or whatever it may be, being used in the background of a piece of home movie material that is ended with an ad for Verizon!

So I hear that YouTube is now reviewing a number of software options for matching wave shapes of music so that they can at least claim that they are trying to cut out infringing material.

I also heard before I left SF that the VC's behind YouTube are asserting a half billion as the value of YouTube. All this still without a revenue model.

I will be interested in watching this space.

This entry was posted on July 21, 2006 at 12:04 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Main Page by Chris Gilbey No Comments Yet