Google's copyright nightmare

Tim Weber Business editor, BBC News website
Google's takeover of video-sharing website YouTube may look like a nifty business move. For the company's legal team, however, it may soon turn into a long and nasty nightmare.
Here's the rub: Besides all the gorgeous and goofy home videos, YouTube (like other video websites) hosts plenty of pirated content.

These copyrighted music and film clips have been uploaded by YouTube members who pilfered the content from television, CDs, DVDs and other websites.
The aggrieved parties are not just the big guys, film studios like Fox or broadcasters like NBC and the BBC.
Many of the rights are owned by thousands of small independent production companies, and by individuals who want to retain control over their own products and the revenues they might generate.

Until now most copyright holders had little incentive to sue YouTube. The company was young and rapidly burning through its venture capital.
Now that YouTube is part of the Google empire, with a market capitalisation of $129bn (£70bn), there is a serious incentive to let the lawyers off the leash.
As Marc Cuban, a famously outspoken internet entrepreneur - and founder of broadcast.com - put it just before the deal was sealed: "Google [would] be crazy to buy YouTube. No doubt about it. Moronic would be an understatement of a lifetime."

It looks like I may be proved right -- so check out the videos before they disappear (c: