YouTube Unveils Copyright Protection Plan

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Google, Home Entertainment, Internet, Movies, Music

YouTube has finally released the means to automatically remove copyrighted clips. Although it has been eliminating most of those videos per request, the site is hoping that this will have a more positive impact on complaints such as Viacom’s suit against them. Working with its parent Google, the technology also allows companies to sell ads on their material if they will allow them to remain on YouTube. Unfortunately, the method of copyright protection requires copies of the videos that need protecting to be given to YouTube for comparison. This certainly doesn’t appear to be the solution that the studios desire and we suspect that YouTube will have to go back to the drawing board on this one.

Read More | ABC

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MTV to Invest $500 Million in Games Division

Posted by Steve Van Neil Categories: Corporate News, Culture, Music

Look no further for proof that the video game business is big business indeed.  Media giant MTV has announced that it is sinking over a half billion dollars into the video game industry over the next two years.

“As we take our brands narrow and deep to serve our targeted, niche audiences, we’re putting well over $500 million behind building our games business across all of the brands in our portfolio,” explained MTV chairman and chief executive Judy McGrath.

MTV is set to make a big splash this fall when Rock Band is released.  MTV/Viacom recently purchased Rock Band and Guitar Hero developer Harmonix, so the success of the game will greatly impact any of the network’s future gaming endeavors.  In addition to the Harmonix acquisition, MTV/Viacom has snapped up Xfire and GameTrailers, quietly making itself a major player in the gaming scene.

Read More | GameDaily

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Viacom Sues YouTube for $1 Billion

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Google, Internet, Videos

In the continuing struggle with YouTube, Viacom, which is owned by Google, has taken YouTube to court for the astounding sum of $1 billion. Viacom claims that the site has shown 160,000 of its videos without express permission.

“Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws,” Viacom said.
We’re thinking that this may be the first in a long series of lawsuits to get YouTube to respect the legal rights of copywritten material. The list will probably include such companies as GE and NBC. News Corp and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban have already begun legal proceedings against the media giant.

Read More | MSN

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