Content vs. Communication

Mike Masnick has an interesting post on Techdirt today, reporting on Google’s recently filed response to the Viacom lawsuit against YouTube. In a nutshell, Google’s response is that a) it’s doing nothing wrong and taking all measures to remove copyrighted material and b) a threat to sharing on the internet is a threat to the internet as a communications medium.

This second point hits the nail on the head, and exemplifies the fundamental shift in thinking that’s required to understand that people on the internet are not trying to steal your stuff. They are sharing it, talking about it, engaging with it…. I have worked in television/interactive for 8 years at 2 cable networks, heard marketing and PR departments go on ad nauseum about “viral this” and “viral that” and “this clip has HUGE viral potential” and “let’s seed this viral video on YouTube!” – which usually means a PR person pretending to be a consumer, and then “seeding” the clip (which usually has NO viral potential) with some inane comment like “Look at this hilarious clip I found!” [sic]. As if that phoniness doesn’t get sniffed out a mile away.

So what’s the big deal when the clips actually do end up on YouTube, contributed by actual living breathing fans?? The difference is that the corporation is no longer controlling the conversation, and that’s what they can’t stand. The media giants are all about “authenticity” and “conversation” when they are in the drivers seat, and all about lawsuits when they are not.

Conversation and sharing are here to stay, and Google and Mark Masnick are right when they state that we need to start understanding the internet not as a broadcast medium, but as a communications medium.

“Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about”
– Cory Doctrow

Links:

• Yahoo News
• Mashable

Tagged as: Copyright, Viacom, YouTube