Viacom is putting the value of Google’s billion-dollar acquisition of YouTube to the test:
Viacom Inc. on Friday demanded that Google Inc.’s online video service YouTube remove more than 100,000 video clips after they failed to reach a distribution agreement.
Viacom said it sent a notice to YouTube on Friday morning, asking the popular video-sharing site to remove clips from Viacom-owned properties including MTV Networks and BET.
Viacom’s specific grievance against the user-driven video platform sure sounds like the dress rehearsal for a lawsuit:
“Filtering tools promised repeatedly by YouTube and Google have not been put in place, and they continue to host and stream vast amounts of unauthorized video,” Viacom said in a statement.
The article notes that YouTube has reached deals with other media providers and quotes a stock analyst saying this is probably just hardball negotiations; we shall see. Obviously the risk to YouTube is, once it has a legal ruling against it on behalf of one media company its position will be that much weaker in negotiations with others.
The media moguls have created this situation. They liked the buzz that was created when file sharing first started and they actually encouraged it feeling that it provided free advertising. Now they are trying to put the genie back in the bottle and that is going tobe hard to do. Their current target of suing individuals is only further alienating their potential customers and it will not help their future business.