Disney, one of the companies best known for vigilantly protecting copyrights and its closely held IP, just signed a long-awaited deal with YouTube. On its face, the deal is pretty mundane.
Dig deeper, though, and some interesting details start to emerge. First of all, unlike Hulu, YouTube is best known for user-uploads. From inception, much of the hullabaloo about this uploaded content was that it was so often copyrighted, like this classic three little pigs cartoon (which has been my daughter's favorite for months).
What many casual observers don't know is that when faced with the reality that their content has been detected on YouTube, the copyright holder has three options.
The first, and best-known option, is the "take-down."
This is when the copyright owner simply removes the content.
Second, the rights holder can simply "look the other way." They basically allow the content to stay up on YouTube, presumedly for the inherent promotional value of that many eyeballs, without taking any action.
Finally, there is the least-known "monetize" option. Essentially, YouTube (or content owner) can sell ads against the uploaded content and earn incremental revenue.
What the media companies cannot do, however, is claim ignorance that the clip exists online. The fact that the "Three Little Pigs" clip is among many Disney videos on YouTube, and that it was featured as "promoted" content, leads me to believe that specific elements of this Disney deal were in place long before today's announcement was confirmed.
It also leads me to believe that ultimately these copyright owners will smarten up and be in a position to profit from the engagement of their loyal fans, rather than work to have them persecuted.
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf, indeed.
