COPYCENSE

“With the introduction of its new copy-restriction video service, Google has diverged from its corporate ethos. For the first time in the company’s history, it has released a product that is designed to fill the needs of someone other than Google’s users.

“The question is, why has Google done this? There’s no Google customer who woke up this morning looking for a way to do less with her video. … That’s not to say that there’s nothing problematic about getting your video through Google this way. But the problems of the inability of the entertainment industry to adapt to the Internet are the entertainment industry’s problems, not Google’s. Google’s really good at adapting to the Internet — that’s why it’s capitalized at $100 billion while the whole of Hollywood only turns over $60 billion a year.

“But once Google starts brokering the relationship between Hollywood and their audience, this becomes Google’s problem too, which means that all the absurd, business-punishing avenues pursued by Hollywood are now Google’s business, as well.”

Boing Boing. Google Video DRM: Why is Hollywood More Important Than Users? Feb. 14, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.