Issue date: 10/12/06 Section: Campus News

The biggest news this past week is that Google is acquiring YouTube for
$1.65 billion in shares. Google claims that the forced partnership is
only natural since Google's goal is to make information universally
accessible and useful. No doubt, this merger will change Google's own
video service. According to Comscore World Metrix, YouTube's audience
has soared from 2.8 million unique users one year ago to 72 million
users in August 2006. YouTube as actively been allying itself with media
companies like Universal Music Group, which signed a distribution deal
to allow its artists to play on YouTube. However, Google Video and
YouTube will function as separate operations, according to Google
executives. This seems counter intuitive, but it will force at least
some competition. YouTube, which will retain its brand and employees,
will be able to take advantage of Google's vast network.

A potential copyright problem might plague Google, possibly explaining why
YouTube will not be an expansion of Google Video. The system YouTube
uses for controlling copyrighted content is very basic and, as any
YouTube user can attest, finding illegal content is fairly simple.
Basically, content gets flagged as breech of copyright and then gets
removed. That's why so many music videos and TV shows appear on YouTube.
Someone must want royalties. Google might get sued for copyright
infringement by many entities like the RIAA or some major music
distributors. That could make this expensive deal not such a good
investment for Google.

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