I know that the widely blogged-upon comments by Universal Music chief executive Doug Morris about YouTube stealing money from his company are probably more of a bargaining chip than anything else, as Mike Masnick at Techdirt points out with his usual perspicacity. But they still amount to a cheap shot — and a sign of how retarded (sorry, I mean “developmentally delayed”) Universal’s thinking is when it comes to social media. I can hardly wait until Umair of Bubblegeneration.com weighs in on this one.
Contrast the threats from Mr. Morris (based on a questionable understanding of the laws regarding copyright infringement, as Mike notes) with what NBC is doing: not only trying to find new and different ways of “monetizing” their content on the Web, but setting up an entire entity devoted to doing that, as I wrote about here. They are also streaming their new fall shows for free, supported by advertising, as are several other networks.
That seems a whole lot smarter to me than rattling the sabres and getting the lawyers all fired up. As James Robertson notes, the “clues aren’t very thick” over there at Universal, it seems.