TimeWarner threatens to set the lawyers on YouTube

 

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Posted on 16 Oct 2006 at 10:51

The CEO of TimeWarner is threatening to sue YouTube for 'breach of copyright', according to newspaper reports. Dick Parsons, the chairman and chief executive of Time Warner told The Guardian, '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.'

The threat follows similar warnings from News Corp. It emerged last week that the Murdoch empire was displeased that Google did not allow it an 'opportunity to participate in the sale process' and was seeking an urgent meeting to 'discuss new ways of working together'.

The feeling is that previously although YouTube had plenty of traffic, in financial terms it was not worth suing. With Google to bankroll the site, the situation has clearly changed and companies are now queuing up to get their piece of the YouTube sale process.

However, Parsons denies that the Google acquisition of YouTube had prompted his comments. 'We were going to pursue it anyway,' he said. '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.'

If TimeWarner does decide to sue YouTube, it could all get very messy. Suing YouTube for copyright infringement would be suing Google, which happens to own five per cent of TimeWarner's subsidiary, AOL.

It is even more curious considering that the Warner Music Group signed a deal with YouTube last month although the WMG was spun off in 2004 and is no longer officially part of TimeWarner.

Perhaps these thoughts occurred to Parsons when he took a more conciliatory line saying, '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.'

Presumably what he has in mind is the kind of deal YouTube signed with Sony BMG, CBS Television and Universal Music Group where the media majors are given some kind of royalty for their copyright material appearing on YouTube along with software able to detect and remove unauthorised posting of that material.

Author: Steve Malone