"I'm
sure that the big content providers will all be queueing up to do
deals with Google," said Kim Walker, an intellectual property
lawyer with Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW. "I guess
the smaller operators who perhaps haven't got the negotiating clout
that Universal and EMI and so on have got I guess if they can't do
a deal or don't do a deal they are going to be more likely to look
for recompense in some other way by threatening legal
proceedings."
Walker was speaking to OUT-LAW Radio, the weekly technology
podcast.
YouTube has in recent weeks signed a raft of content deals with
major music, television and film companies in a bid to ward off
copyright law suits. Warner Brothers, Universal Music, Sony BMG and
TV company CBS have all signed deals. But while the big rights
holders might cut deals now, Walker believes that lobbying will
take place to have the laws changed.
"Effectively YouTube or Google Video has a business model based
on allowing material to be up there until someone gets round to
complaining and taking it down," said Walker. "I just think the
content providers will lobby both in Europe and probably in the US
to have the laws tightened so that the notice and take down
procedures aren't their sole remedy."
Despite doubts over the commercial future of YouTube because of
widespread copyright infringement on the site, Walker says that the
company is complying fully with copyright law by taking down
material when notified about it.
"If YouTube is asked by content providers to take material down
and doesn't do so within a reasonable period then it can certainly
be liable for copyright infringement; otherwise it is primarily the
user who uploads the material who will be liable," he said, adding
that the company is operating entirely legally. "Unfortunately for
the content holders that is currently the position."
YouTube was not an attractive target for suits previously
because it did not have enormous assets. Google, on the other hand,
has a market capitalisation of $130 billion which makes it a much
more likely target for suits.
"The US is a pretty litigious place to begin with," said Jordan
Rohan, a stock market analyst at RBC Capital Markets. "I think
you'll certainly see some lawsuits, that makes sense; that's how
the US economy works."
