YouTube Serves A Consumer Need

Update: Google, YouTube hit with $1B copyright suit

I don't know about you but I like the idea of going to YouTube and finding something I missed on T.V. and watching it on demand. Sure it is IP (intellectual property) of the owner, and I don't advocate theft, but the consumer need is being unmet by traditional methods or by any new ones introduced by the market to date. Unless you count TiVO, but that only addresses programs that you missed and are catching up on after having set your time to 'record' them.

I'm talking about the South Park or Simpsons or Hockey clip you read about in the news (or on a blog) and decide you want to check it out. Where do you go for that?

If YouTube's idea is offensive and infringing according to the television/ movie studios, why don't they come up with an alternative that let's them generate revenue off of their own works utilizing new technology. Provide the consumer a palatable alternative. The dithering and delaying the music companies engaged in, led directly to the rise of the original Napster and follow on peer sharing sites to the detriment of the music industry's revenues. You'd think the movie and television companies would have learned a lesson and come up with a "YouTube" like portal on their own.

Instead they are seeking to sue Google and YouTube for creating and building out that which they couldn't, wouldn't build on their own. Well, it's too late to put that genie back in the bottle. Even if YouTube is taken out, others will fill the void to the lasting pain of the "industry". Insteading of suing Google/ YouTube they ought to be talking to them about a revenue sharing deal that puts their entire library out into the market for folks to watch on demand.