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YouTube AntiPiracy Policy Likened to 'Mafia Shakedown'
A C|Net article discusses reactions to YouTube's newly proposed antipiracy software policy. The company is now offering assistance for IP holders, allowing them to keep track of their content on the YouTube service ... if they sign up with the company for licensing agreements. A spokesman for Viacom (already in a fight with YouTube to take down numerous video clips) called this policy 'unacceptable', and another industry analyst likened it to a 'mafia shakedown.' YouTubes cites the challenges of determining ownership of a given video clip as the reason for this policy, and hopes that IP owners will cooperate in resolving these issues. Some onlookers also feel that these protestations are simply saber-rattling before an eventual deal: "'The debates are about negotiations more than anything else--who's going to pay whom and how much,' said Saul Berman, IBM's global media and entertainment strategy leader."
Well, at least its nice that they used a mafia comparison instead of a Nazi comparison.
Oh stop it already. Your touchy feely astroturfing adds nothing to the discussion. We could just as easily say that we are a civilization built upon the concept of property rights and contracts, or, more precsisely, that there is a fairly strong case to be made that humans are best motivated by reward thhat is nearby and obvious - that is to say, not by some great notion of sharing (which has the free rider problem), but rather a capitalist sense of barter and exchange.