Media Titans Pressure YouTube Over Copyrights

Some quotes from a WSJ article, this week end:
"(...) But lawyers for the  group of media companies, which includes News Corp., General Electric Co.'s NBC  Universal and Viacom Inc., have concluded that YouTube could be liable to  copyright penalties of $150,000 per unauthorized video, people familiar the  matter say. Viacom believes that pirated versions of video clips from its cable  channels -- including MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon -- are watched 80,000  times a day via YouTube. At that rate, potential penalties could run into the  billions of dollars. Time Warner Inc.  hasn't joined the group, but has also warned YouTube about what it considers to  be the site's repeated infringement of its copyrights. In an interview that  appeared in Britain's Guardian newspaper Friday, Time Warner Chief Executive  Richard Parsons made ominous hints about what course he would pursue if YouTube  doesn't agree to a deal.
(...) On the one hand, they fear its size and clout. On the  other hand, the media companies know that Google can be a valuable partner in  distributing their content around the Web and also in drawing advertising.  Indeed, Google already has separate links through partnerships and ownership  stakes to a number of media companies, a fact that could ease the companies'  negotiations with  YouTube.
(...) So far, YouTube has struck deals  with TV companies NBC Universal, CBS Corp. and with most of the major music  companies, including Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA's Universal Music  Group and Sony Corp.'s and Bertelsmann AG's joint venture. YouTube is building a  system that would help automate identification of videos containing copyright  material on its site, and allow the content owners to get a portion of any  related ad revenue.
(...) According to John Palfrey, an  intellectual-property professor at Harvard Law  School, media companies  will argue that YouTube shouldn't fall within the safe-harbor protections of the  copyright law because, among other reasons, YouTube is deriving direct financial  benefit from the infringement."