http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...ss/15718937.htm

Google's deal to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion, announced Monday, appears to be part of a larger strategy by the search engine giant to solve one of the trickiest aspects of media on the Web: copyright issues.

The deal also unites the world's largest search engine with one of its hottest properties, and creates another duo of fabulously young and wealthy Silicon Valley entreprenuers, similar in many ways to Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google itself.

After a weekend of speculation, Google said it will pay for San Bruno-based YouTube with stock and allow YouTube to maintain much of its autonomy. Google also said it would continue providing its own video-sharing site, Google Video.

Analysts worried about the price, but a bigger concern about buying YouTube may have been copyright issues. The site is full of music videos, as well as old films and TV broadcasts and had been the subject of a rhetorical assault by big media companies worried about all the free content.

YouTube and Google dealt with some of those concerns Monday in a series of deals with content providers revealed before the Google-YouTube announcement.

More broadly, Google hinted it believes it can resolve the copyright issues on a wider scale that could make the search engine a major media player.

Right now, clips of old T.V. shows like ``Tales of the Unexpected'' or the ``Soupy Sales Show'' can be found on YouTube, but not on sites like Google that sell legal downloads.

A big part of the problem is copyright issues. Every broadcast involves multiple copyrights, not only for the actors'performances but for every piece of music.

Different contracts can govern rights for rebroadcast or for syndication. Tracking down contracts and copyright holders themselves can be tough, particularly with older broadcasts.

The complexity has so far limited the digitization of video archives, and it has cast a legal cloud over YouTube, which regularly streams copyrighted works without the permission of their owners.

At a press conference Monday afternoon, YouTube's co-founders, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, said Google's promise to help YouTube create a system that could sort through the copyright mess was key to clinching the deal.

``From the beginning we have always respected rights holders'rights and we are going to continue with this mission,'' Hurley said. `What this deal allowed us to do is focus on that much more than we ever could before, to have the resources to build a system so copyright owners can benefit from our site.''

Neither Google or YouTube would provide details of how their copyright-protection system will work. Steve Chen, YouTube's chief technology officer, said the engineering teams of both companies are looking at mechanisms like audio-fingerprinting, as well as keyword and context searches.

``We hope to release this in the next month,'' Chen said.

Both YouTube and Google also announced Monday separate revenue-sharing deals with major entertainment companies, including CBS, Sony BMG Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. EMI, the fourth major music label, confirmed it was in discussions with both Google and YouTube.

The partnerships will allow YouTube and Google Video users to watch music videos and other media for free, with advertising revenue to be shared between the video site and the content's copyright owner.

Jennifer Feiken, the director of Google video, said Google is also developing a technology that will let users include copyrighted material in the videos they create and upload to Google.

Feiken said Google is working with industry partners like Sony and Warner to ``figure out ways in which we can help them monetize their content through user-generated activities so they will be able to protect their copyright and earn revenue.''

Feiken said Google is also talking to ``a number of networks and studios'' about a similar type of technology. ``It's not like we are specializing in one type of video here,'' Feiken said. ``There is definitely an interest to continue working with all content providers, not just music labels, but television networks, studios, sports leagues.''

If Google is successful in creating a copyright-protection system, ``it will be able to be used quite widely,'' Feiken said.

David Bloch, an attorney with McDermott Will & Emery who specializes in copyright issues, said a technological solution would be preferable to litigation. ``I would think and I would even hope that content providers, copyright owners would at least give Google the benefit of the doubt for at least a period of time,'' before filing lawsuits.

But Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, said people have been talking about such a solution for over a decade. ``What it requires a copyright owner to do is to let go ... the letting go part has been the real problem.''

Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, was optimistic that a new way of thinking about copyrights will take hold. ``I think most people believe that this is just the beginning of an Internet video revolution and there will be many ways in which that video gets uploaded, monetized and copyrights respected,'' he said.

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"respect a copyrights on youtube" mean a dead for youtube..

that is bad.. i like this site like it is at moment..

whaat??! then what are they gonna have on youtube worth watching? how gay

DAMN, R.I.P youtube *sad*

they're gonna leave youtube alone completely and leave it the same as it is.

one good thing is that google has a bunch of licenses for distributing time warner and other studio's music, so if u liked watching music videos on youtube, its def. more possible to remain legal to in the future now.

google in general is very sensitive to consumer demands. if they deviate from what youtube offers, another youtube will rise up in its place and take over its spot.