Google faces copyright fight over YouTube
Dick Parsons, the chairman and chief executive of Time Warner, fired a shot across the bows of Google, saying his group would pursue its copyright complaints against YouTube.
Mr Parsons told the Guardian: "You can assume we're in negotiations with YouTube and that those negotiations will be kicked up to the Google level in the hope that we can get to some acceptable position."
He denied the decision to pursue any potential infringement had been prompted by this week's acquisition. Google, whose core search function attracted 204 million users in August, four times those who used YouTube, has a higher market capitalisation than Time Warner. "We were going to pursue it anyway," he said. "If you let one thing ignore your rights as an owner it makes it much more difficult to defend those rights when the next guy comes along."
YouTube founder Chad Hurley has also sought to play down copyright fears. "We're committed to developing tools to identify the content and monetise it so [content owners] can have a new outlet for their content."
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