GooTube
by Michael HoffmanWednesday, October 11th, 2006
OK, So Google bought YouTube. Some people think this is a bad idea, and that the only reason YouTube hasn’t been sued by the copyright holders of all those TV shows and movies and music on YouTube is because they didn’t have deep pockets. Now they do. They have a point…
But I think Google considered this already.
Google knows this and their plan, if they can pull it off, will be ingenious. They say that they will be able to tell if something uploaded to YouTube infringes on someone else’s copyright. How will they do this? I can imagine a giant database in one of Google’s giant data centers, with all the content from major media companies and when someone uploads something it sees if it or parts of it matches what is in their database. It seems insane, but I think Google thinks very big. If it matches, they plan to give the copyright holders a choice – share in the advertising revenue, or take the material down. Of course most companies will want the revenue.
YouTube has been working on this, but if anyone can pull it off it’s Google – they have a big collection of brains and processing power. Between the technology and promotional deals with the major media companies, Google will have the bases covered.
