Has Viacom Gone Too Far?

Very interesting take on the recent court decision regarding Viacom’s request for user records from Google/YouTube by the District Court for Southern New York Judge Louis Stanton. In his article “Viacom Has Gone Too Far” author Lance Ulanoff gets a bit upset by what he sees are the implications for users of YouTube. Among his chief complaints? Viacom will now probably go after millions of members to try and get them to pay for the copyrighted videos they viewed on YouTube because they are greedy. Well, he says Billionaire Sumner Redstone is greedy…

Read some of these blurbs from the story:

“Once Google delivers the terabytes worth of data, you and your minions can pour over it looking for copyrighted content and those who watched it. Oh, I know you say you just want to understand if people watch more illegal content than legal—like it’s all some academic exercise—but I say there’s more to it than that. You want to go after the viewers. You want to find people who consume too much Colbert Report and MTV on YouTube and find a way to levy a fine on them. “

“With those logs in hand, though, Mr. Redstone, Viacom has the will and means to do all sorts of nasty things. It will learn what copyrighted videos still exist, whether or not people still watch them, and who the watchers are. A witch hunt could ensue.”

What a bunch of nonsense. What did Viacom get the judgement to obtain? User records which can identify which users uploaded the copyrighted videos. Google can and probably will appeal the ruling. Why? Certainly not because they are interesting in protecting their members. Rather they will appeal because once they provide that information, it will no longer be cool to upload videos on YouTube and they will lose advertising revenues. Viewers are only attracted if the content is good….lose the content and you lose the viewers, the ad clicks, and their associated revenue streams.

But the bigger question remains in the author’s mind… “When will they go after the viewers?” Answer: Probably never.

Why? It’s not going to be cost effective nor is there any legal reason to do so. The DMCA is all about those who upload or transfer copyrighted materials, not those who only watch. User data including the transactional metrics for users is very valuable information to have when pursuing a copyright infringement case using the DMCA.

But not because of the information on the viewers separated from the videos uploaded…

The reason to get this information is to isolate the members who uploaded the most copyrighted materials, then build the trail of users who viewed them in order to have metrics backing up the amount that Google/YouTube owes you for the copyrighted content. Secondary reason is that if you lose this suit and Google/YouTube is found to be protected under the Safe Harbor Provision of the DMCA, then you have the data through discovery to go after the individuals who are now responsible for the lost revenues. (Not that they will collect the money, but it will send a strong message.)

We continue to hear so many people say that there is no harm in letting the members of a social network or community upload what they want and control the norms of the site. It’s the Internet for goodness sake! But unfortunately, these folks have had a bit too much of the internet communist Kool-Aid. This case is proving that these people (and many of them are consultants in the online community/social networking world) are on the wrong side and mis-informed. We hope that this case continues to move towards a judgement rather than a settlement in order to provide clarity for any organization that offers its members the opportunity to upload content to their site.

Looking for a better way to deal with all of these issues? Contact us. We’re not lawyers, although we have slept at Holiday Inns from time to time….

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MySpace: New Safety Measures…A Good Start…Maybe

Today’s big news in the community/social networking world is the agreement that MySpace entered into with 49 states and the District of Columbia. MySpace agreed to a rather comprehensive set of standards to help protect children who use their site. Sounds good, and many of the issues are dead on. There are a couple of elements that we think are so elementary (pardon the pun) that we wondered why the MySpace team wasn’t already performing them. Specifically:

1. MySpace agreed to review every image posted to its site. Best way to stop the online nonsense of users adding porn and offensive images is to be proactive. This probably was not done earlier for two reasons. The first is that the amount of images to review is probably quite large and would be very expensive to hire staff to do the reviews. The second is that the actual amount of images which are offensive and posted to the site is relatively small. But this is a good step for securing their site and making it more attractive for parents who are concerned about their children’s activities online.
2. Cross checking sex offender databases against the MySpace registration database. This is something that probably wasn’t thought about when MySpace was created. But in this age of immediate contact, communication, and internet gratification, it is warranted now. Just watch NBC’s “To Catch A Predator” series and you’ll see how the bad guys use the internet to go after children. Another good step by MySpace that other social networks should consider adopting. Afterall, many sex offenders are barred from using the internet to contact underage minors in their probation agreements. This would serve as an additional layer of law enforcement protection if the sites would contact local law authorities when sex offenders are found to have registered on their sites. (The only downside that we see from this element is that it may drive offenders deeper undercover, making them harder to find online.)
3. MySpace profiles for those users who are 15 and 16 will automatically be set to a default private setting. Another logical step. Hopefully, this doesn’t impact the use by this group but in some cases safety does need to come first.

It will be interesting to see the technology that MySpace will create and use to enforce the age based controls on the site. (Just like the video controls and copyright safeguards technology we’re still waiting to see from Google…).

Just as Facebook agreed with the NY State Attorney’s office to remove any objectionable content reported by users within 24 hours, these steps are a movement in the right direction and actually are implementing the best practices for running a community web site.

The way that many of the social networks sites run is to let users control everything and only act when contacted by an authority such as a state’s Attorney General. Not the best idea for these web sites. With the money that they are making, they need to invest in keeping their sites from becoming pits of objectionable content home to predators and perverts. In the long run, a solid moderation system such as we’ve implemented for several clients will save much more than it costs.

Want to learn more about effective moderation techniques or online safety for children? Contact us, we’d be happy to help.

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Are we doomed to repeat the mistakes of Community’s past?

Reading the media’s accounts of online community becoming an important component of marketing, I am struck by the fact that many of the people being quoted think that online community is something new and exciting to offer customers and site visitors.

Take P&G’s latest foray into communities with its interactive agency ZiZo Group for example:

“Capessa.com is an innovative example of how companies are strategically innovating with digital media,” adds Roger Fishman, founder and president of The ZiZo Group. “Developing sustainable digital business models provides new ways to listen to, learn from and engage with online communities and is key for long term brand-building.”

Um, Roger this is not new in any sense of the word…

And from CSO’s blog post, Gartner’s comments:

Peter Sondergaard, global head of research for Gartner, told CEOs at Cebit on Wednesday that blogs and online communities like MySpace may have started in the consumer realm, but they’ll have a big impact on businesses in the coming years.

Peter, where have you been?

Yes, online communities should be part of the mix of any organization that wants and desires to get closer to their customers/members/prospects. But thinking this is something new is silly.

It reminds me of several comments made during the initial BlogOn 2004 meeting in Berkeley where most of the bloggers presenting spoke of how blogs were going to revolutionize the world, change how people interact with each other, and dominate how organizations delivered content to everyone. These comments were usually followed up with discussions about the lack of a business model that worked or a discussion on whether advertising on blogs would be enough to cover a salary plus expenses. What these folks never even contemplated was that all these discussions had taken place before. They assumed that because they had found something new, it was new. They misunderstood the power of a new tool with the power of community. The knowledge of the past work in online communities was irrelevant to them because blogs were new.

The same thing is starting to happen again as the online community world grows. Too many people who are covering this industry believe that it’s new, shiny, and exciting without ever researching what has already happened. When I see companies like SAP, HP, and others labeled as old world or as traditional companies I cringe. Companies like these (and I’d add Cisco and Microsoft as well), have embedded the idea of online community so deeply into their organizations that there is true enterprise knowledge being gained.

For every MySpace there is a GeoCities. For every Capessa there is an iVillage. There is knowledge and experience to be mined in order to avoid stepping on the landmines that await new online communities. Whether it will ever be tapped into is another question.

(Cross posted to the FUTURE OF COMMUNITY blog) Want to gain that experience and learn how to avoid the common pitfalls of launching and operating an online community? Contact us for a free consultation.

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Is MySpace now a verb like Google?

There are some very interesting changes happening in the online community world… An article in PCWorld today calls out the new Salesforce.com MySpace-like offering for business. In the article titled “Salesforce.com Readies MySpace for Business,” China Martens has some very, very interesting quotes:

“We looked at the customer portal concept to see how we could reinvent it,” said Kendall Collins, senior vice president of product marketing at Salesforce.com. “We see the portal more as a space, not a window, in terms of what you can do with it and how you can fill it.”

“Our vision for AppSpace is broader,” Collins said. “It’s going to include wikis and blogs.” Salesforce.com is also hearing from users that they’d be keen to see payment widgets included, he added.

Salesforce.com’s move with AppSpace follows Microsoft Corp.’s announcement last week at its Convergence show of its take on MySpace. The software giant is creating a series of online communities for users of its Dynamics ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM applications, starting with a site for finance professionals to exchange best practices. So far, Microsoft hasn’t positioned the communities as a place to share applications.

It appears that we are on the cusp of hearing MySpace used as not only the name of a web site and company but as a verb as in “We wanted to MySpace our site to meet our users’ expectations.” Next it will be marketing’s turn to claim “We MySpaced our competition…”

Wait for it….

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