Youtube bigwig buys into video rights outfit

IN THE MOST IRONIC MOVE of today, YouTube’s director of video partnerships, Patrick Walker has become an investor in and joined the board of myvideorights.com – a monitoring firm for professional web content producers.

That’s right - Walker has joined Carlton TV International chief executive Rupert Dilnott-Cooper, Richard Mansell, former director of Protiviti Technology and ex-Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie in the battle against illegal clip sharing.

Although the firm believes this is a good move as Walker has vast experience in the video sharing world, the irony in the Youtube director joining is clear.

Youtube has been involved in a huge number of cases of illegally used clips which have either been copyrighted or show indecent material.

Although the video sharing giant has stepped up its anti copyright infringement technology it’s hard to simply forget the intense criticism Youtube has received from rights owners and media companies.

What’s worse is that YouTube’s parent company Google is still involved in a lengthy battle with Viacom over a copyright scandal.

Former Endemol chief creative officer Peter Bazalgette said the 40 billion clips watched online last year made it difficult for the firm to monetise the millions of clips watched online as so many were illegally distributed.

Bazalgette did say however that, "Patrick's experience and knowledge in this field is second to none and Youtube is the most important video sharing site in the world.” µ

L'Inq
The Guardian