The afternoon squeeze – Paying for the right to sue?
BusinessWeek takes the conversation about legal concerns surrounding the YouTube deal to new heights.
BW’s Catherine Holahan reports that Mark Cuban is “considering acquiring the independent news agency that’s suing the video-sharing site for copyright violations.”
Who’s Cuban? Well, he runs Blog Maverick – appropriately inspired by the fact that he owns the Dallas Mavericks. He also is co-founder of HDnet, which PRpulp mentioned just picked up Dan Rather. According to his Wiki entry, Cuban is a true American billionaire entrepreneur who made his money with various Internet ventures such as Broadcast.com and Weblogs among others.
But we digress. Back to BW:
On July 14, independent photojournalist Robert Tur—known for videotaping the Los Angeles riots and O.J. Simpson’s flight from police in his Bronco—sued YouTube for allowing users to upload his videos and, allegedly, profiting from advertising on pages where his videos posted. According to tech-news site CNET.com (CNET), it is Tur’s company, the Los Angeles News Service, that Cuban is courting. Cuban did not return e-mail requests for comment. Tur could not be reached by phone.
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He is also clearly interested in the case. So interested, in fact, that he dedicated a Nov. 14 posting on his blog to a motion for summary judgment filed by Tur’s lawyers. “To say the stakes are huge would be an understatement,” wrote Cuban, who subsequently highlighted an argument made by Tur’s legal representatives.
Still, any court battle with Google would not be easy. With a market cap of $150 billion, Google’s potential legal resources are formidable, to say the least. It also has a reason to fight hard if Tur’s case makes it before a judge. A ruling that simply taking down copyrighted content does not avoid liability could open the floodgates to others suing Google over copyright infringement. Google has a substantial interest in ensuring that platforms such as YouTube and Google Video are not liable for copyrighted videos uploaded to sites provided they make an effort to keep it off. The less required to be considered a good faith effort, the less risk Google assumes when allowing users to post video content.
Interesting stuff. Guess when you’re a billionaire and looking to pick a fight you pick on someone your own size. Well, it might be a little lopsided. Regardless, PRpulp will be watching.
Mr. Cuban, if you’re looking to get rid of some of your money, we have a better idea. Just drop us a line.
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