It’s always when I’m on the road. Microsoft’s counsel today made some inflammatory comments (more here) about Google and copyright, infering that perhaps Google’s entire approach to media was in violation of copyright. Google pointed me to a response by the head of the CIAA, here.
This is not Microsoft’s – or others – first attempt at playing to Big Media’s fears of Google. More as I have it…
Update: Google has provided me with this comment from David Drummond, their Senior Vice President Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer:
The goal of search engines, and of products like Google Book Search and YouTube, is to help users find information from content producers of every size. We do this by complying with international copyright laws, and the result has been more exposure and in many cases more revenue for authors, publishers and producers of content. In the publishing industry alone, we work with more than 10,000 partners around the world to make their works discoverable online, and in video, we recently added new partners including BBC and NBA. We look forward to working with even more partners to make more content discoverable online.
Just as Google is in a pitched debate with major media companies over YouTube, Microsoft pokes at its soft underbelly. I love this stuff. It literally writes itself.