Although there is no question about the infringement of IP rights by You Tube, this case brings many other issues. I do not want to discuss much legal issues here (I guess we'll have a chance to do so later on in class).

The first one is simply about free speech. How can IP and free speech be reconciled? Certainly not with the path that Viacom is taking. There is no doubt about the fact that Viacom is violating some copyrights, but there is a tremendous amount of non infringing contents. Since You Tube is available worldwide, this amazing tool allows some people to express ideas that they cannot do in their own countries since they are dictatorships. I worry about the consequences of such a lawsuit. Thinks about what happened to Napster, which was also a great tool. Although it is sometimes used for copyright infringement reasons, a lot of people use it simply to post their "creations." 

The second point is a comparative perspective. Video sharing is not (fortunately) limited to you tube. All around the world such websites exist (see myvideo.de for Germany or metacafe.com).

They are more or less successful. But among them there is one that is particularly successful (I swear I am not saying that because I am French...), which is Dailymotion.com. Dailymotion is based in Paris and also has some protected contents on its website. It was found liable by a French Court for copyright infringement since a full movie was available online (around 30000€ for damages...I guess that Google dreams for seach "inexpensive" damages) . But the interesting thing with Dailymotion is that they found an agreement with the major French TV channel to have some protected contents available for free. More over they even created a website together (www.wat.tv). And the TV channel broadcast clips from this website...

What I do not accept from majors and IP rights holders is that they always come late when "the battle is over", and then ask courts to give them huge damages based on an old & inappropriate law. That was the case for cassettes, CDs, P2P and now with video sharing. Will they understand once that they have to adapt quicker and to stop to attack consumers via Napster and Grokster yesterday, and with You Tube today?

Because at the end of the day, consumers are tired of this very "aristocratic" way of doing business, just because those huge companies have privileges, namely IP.

I guess consumers would be reconciled with IP if copyrights holders (the majors) stop exaggerating with IP in invoking IP only to fill the gap of their lack of adaptability (lack of competence...?) to the market & to new technologies...

Unfortunately, it is exactly what Viacom is doing.

Daoud