14 DAY TRIAL // Because YouTube is the most popular online video service on the Internet, you surely know that it represents a Google solution that allows you to publish, share and comment movies with other members of the community. The service was acquired by Google in October 2006 for $1.6 billion, representing the biggest Internet acquisition ever made. Because it is now owned by the search giant, YouTube is updated and improved periodically, being the target of multiple functions and features meant to attract even more users to it. For example, the most known update is represented by the TestTube ability, a testing platform inspired by Google's Labs that allows company and users to test all the new characteristics meant to be implemented into the solution.
YouTube works with video files so it's obvious that most of them are created by companies or users, Google owning no copyright over the content published on the service. That's why the search giant was often criticized and even sued for publishing videos without authorization, being forced to remove certain movies from the website. The most known and the most recent case concerns Daniella Cicareli, Ronaldo's ex-wife who sued YouTube for publishing videos with the Brazilian model without her approval. A Brazilian court ordered the service to remove the movies but although the company sustained they blocked the content, users uploaded it again and YouTube Brazil was banned for a limited period of time.
Recently, Viacom, the company that owns MTV and other brands, ordered YouTube to remove almost 100.000 clips from the website because the company considers that Google receives all the praises for the content published by other firms. Google agreed but the search giant announced a new partnership with Warner that will bring even more videos to the official page of the service.
Today, Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, an NBA franchise and Chairman of HDNet, an HDTV cable network, posted a message on his blog to attack Google for its procedure that forces companies to check YouTube for copyright infringement videos.
"Simply put, EVERY content owner that is concerned about their videos appearing on Google Video OR Youtube has to evaluate EVERY SINGLE VIDEO on both services to check to see if their copyrights are being violated. As a copyright owner, to say its time consuming and expensive is an understatement," he said. "Rather than "doing no harm" and implementing a technology they say they have in place and saving the MILLIONS of small copyright owners time and money, they choose to save that technology and use it only for those big content owners they can swing deals with. Nice," Mark added.
In fact, what is Mark Cuban trying to say? Well, his accusations concern YouTube filters that seem to work only for the partnerships made with other companies but forces other firms to check the service for their videos and find out if YouTube infringes their copyrights or not.
If you want to find more information and read a huge accusation posted by Mark Cuban on his blog, you should follow this link.