NBC’s Defense Against YouTube IP Abuse? Carrot, NOT Stick: OMMA Report
Is a NBC copyright infringement lawsuit near, I headlined way back in May. Today, I asked NBC Universal directly: George Kliavkoff, Chief Digital Officer, specifically.
Addressing the OMMA Conference in New York City this morning, the man responsible for leading the anti-YouTube Hulu.com charge twice lobbed veiled, but pointed, jabs at Google for its scant concern for protecting the rights of content creators at its YouTube juggernaut.
During his keynote chat, Kliavkoff described how Hulu.com is getting support from Internet Service Providers in devising ways to prevent illegitimate copies of copyright video content from proliferating. He also offered that he hoped “one other” market leader would set the proper tone by taking a postive stance to protect IP.
While sitting side by side Google’s Director of Media Platforms, Eileen Naughton, for a panel on “content ownership,” Kliavkoff lamented that a search for Heros at YouTube might yield “300,000 hits,” but very little of NBC’s content returned would actually be properly licensed.
What gives? I asked Kliavkoff. During the Q & A, I noted: “You seem to have twice indicated NBC’s unhappiness with Google’s DMCA business model. Isn’t it time for NBC to give Viacom some real support by also suing YouTube for copyright infringement?”
Kliavkoff responded that NBC belives in IP “carrots, not sticks,” without seizing the opportunity to point out to his Google Media co-panelist what it is that NBC wants YouTube to do!
NBC has been stradling the YouTube copyright infringement fence for more than a year, playing a good cop, bad cop routine designed at maximizing “free” YouTube promotion for NBC content while at the same time publicly needling Google with pointed anti-YouTube business model commentary and serving as a supportive “friend” in YouTube copyright lawsuits brought by others.
NBC can not bring itself to go all out against YouTube, as Viacom has, however, as Kliavoff confirmed today in responding to my question.
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