Google also recently made a pledge to play the straight man on copyright protections. BBC: Andrew Mclaughlin, Google’s head of global public policy, told the Commons culture committee that if material infringed copyright on Google Video service, “we take it down”. But he added: “I just can’t say anything about YouTube since it’s not our company.”
The committee chairman John Whittingdale asked Mr Arora if Google had “put aside a very large pot of money to settle copyright infringement” when it took over YouTube. Mr Arora replied: “There is not a lot we can say about what we will do with YouTube because it is still in the process of due diligence and we haven’t closed the acquisition.” But he added: “We intend to uphold copyright. We believe it is very important as part the creative process. It’s evident from our policy as part of Google Video, Google News or Google Books, and any acquisition in the future is not going to change Google’s view on copyright.”
All this despite that, in a Wired interview, Jon Stewart and Daily Show Producers previously encouraged fans to watch them on the internet. Daily Show and Colbert Report fans without cable, take to the streets across the nation, to mourn.
(John adding commentary here) This feels a bit like Google taking the easy route. I wish it had stood up for the rights of fans to post their favorite clips, and I also wish it did the hard, but ultimately worthy work of convincing the major networks and Hollywood studios to follow their own customers and learn how to profit from their actions.