Economic And Legal Issues Facing Youtube And Similar Internet Hosting Web Sites

摘要

There is a significant battle from an economic and legal perspective taking place between YouTube and Viacom, which, in reality, is just the next skirmish in an ongoing conflict between the business interests of the owners of copyrighted content and the business interests of innovative Internet-based companies with the general Internet-using public's entertainment interests caught in between these warring factions. The seeds of the current and earlier legal battles trace to the explosive growth of Internet connections accompanied by advances in digital technologies that resulted in lower costs of producing and distributing content online.