Tech notes

Jun 7 2007 By Herb Kim, The Journal

The first on-stage meeting of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in 20 years might've been top billing at last week's D: All Things Digital (D5) conference, but it was a catfight between media giants that provided the real entertainment.

I was at D5 to raise the profile of digital innovations in North-East England and find out where the industry is heading from those who brought it to where it is today.

In reality, the much-hyped Clash of the Titans between Gates and Jobs panned out as a bit of a love-in.

But when the chief execs of Viacom and Google/YouTube climbed on stage to discuss copyright infringement, the sparks really flew.

Here's the background: YouTube allows anyone to publish and share videos on the Internet. However, it's just as easy to publish copyrighted content, such as movies and TV shows, as to publish footage of your cat charging the patio doors.

So, in this brave new digital world with no legal precedents what everyone wants to know is this: can YouTube be brought to account for facilitating copyright violation?

In March Viacom sued Google (which owns YouTube) for $1bn, stating: "[There's] no question that YouTube and Google are continuing to take the fruits of our efforts without permission and destroying enormous effort in the process."

Viacom CEO Phillipe Dauman threw the first punch, explaining that he's keen to use the internet to deliver media content as long as those who invested in the content are duly compensated.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Viacom's lawsuit was "probably just a mistake" and referencing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it clear there's a "safe haven" for websites hosting illegally uploaded content, provided they take it down promptly when informed.

I was surprised the conference audience appeared to be hostile to the Viacom action. After all, this isn't just a case of the rich (Google) profiting at the expense of the similarly rich (Viacom). If Viacom doesn't get compensated then content creators lose out too.

But the suit could be a threat to a key component of Web 2.0 businesses - that they make it really easy to get cool stuff for free. Would YouTube and its ilk be as attractive if the copyrighted content wasn't on it?

Overall, we made some hugely influential contacts and the conference further strengthened my conviction that the initiatives in our region are in the hottest areas of digital innovation.

• Herb Kim is CEO of Codeworks, the centre of digital excellence for North-East England.