Debate: Does YouTube Make Google a Big Target for Copyright Suits?

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal hosted a debate between Berkman's Professor John Palfrey and Economist Stan Liebowitz  on whether Google's purchase of YouTube makes Google a target for copyright suits.  You can read the debate here.

Prof. Palfrey wrote about the issue afterwards on his blog, "Making a Market Emerge out of Digital Copyright Uncertainty":

"....My view (in large measure reflected in the WSJ here, in a discussion with Prof. Stan Liebowitz) is that Google is taking on some, but not all that much, copyright risk in its acquisition of YouTube. Google has already proven its mettle in terms of offering services that bring with them a reasonably high appetite for copyright risk: witness the lawsuits filed by the likes of the publishing industry at large; the pornographer Perfect 10; and Agence France Presse. There’s no doubt that Google will have to respond to challenges on both secondary copyright liability and direct copyright liability as a result of this acquisition. If they are diligent and follow the advice of their (truly) brilliant legal team, I think Google should be able to withstand these challenges as a matter of law.

The issue that pops back out the other side of this flurry of interest in the broader question of the continued uncertainty with respect to digital copyright. Despite what I happen to consider a reasonably good case in Google’s favor on these particular facts (so far as I know them), there is an extraordinary amount of uncertainty as a general matter on digital copyright issues in general. Mark Cuban’s couple of posts on this topic are particularly worth reading; there are dozens of others. 

Many business models in the Web 2.0 industry in particular hinge on the outcome of this uncertainty...."

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