Brad Feld

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Video Copyright and YouTube – I’m So Confused

May 13, 2006
Category Technology

After listening to I’m The Decider,  I decided I wanted to go find something on the Stephen Colbert 2006 White House Correspondent’s Dinner Roast.  So – I went to del.icio.us, clicked on my Bush tag, and then clicked on the YouTube link I’d tagged.  Imagine my surprise when I saw the following:

Last week there were a series of back and forth posts between Fred Wilson, Jason Calicanas, with comments from Dave McClure and a bunch of others about whether or not YouTube was legit or if they simply stole content.

YouTube’s Copyright Tips page is extensive and does a great job of describing the rules of engagement for copyrighted material.  I have no idea when this appeared – if it’s recent then someone at YouTube appears to be paying attention to this debate.

I then wandered over to Google Video and quickly found the Google Video version of the Colbert 2006 Dinner Roast.  It’s got C-Span info and links, including a link to purchase the White House Correspondents Dinner DVD all over it, so presumably it’s legit.

Interesting.