Jason Eaton
10-20-2006, 03:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.nytimes.com:80/2006/10/19/technology/19net.html?ex=1318910400&en=fb18406e3a1e91dd&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss' target='_blank'>http://www.nytimes.com:80/2006/10/19/technology/19net.html?ex=1318910400&en=fb18406e3a1e91dd&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss</a><br /><br /></div><i>"YouTube’s young founders may have been the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s $1.65 billion deal with Google, but they have some unexpected bedfellows — old-line media companies that had been considered YouTube’s biggest legal threat. Three of the four major music companies — Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, Sony and Bertelsmann’s jointly owned Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and the Warner Music Group — each quietly negotiated to take small stakes in YouTube as part of video- and music-licensing deals they struck shortly before the sale, people involved in the talks said yesterday. The music companies collectively stand to receive as much as $50 million from these arrangements, these people said."</i><br /><br />Pretty interesting thoughts in this article. While it is interesting to hear that three of the four major music companies might make money due to deals signed just before the buy out, what I find more interesting is that those deals may give Google certain protections from copyright lawsuits.