Time Warner to keep up YouTube chase

Published on Friday 13 October 2006 11:35

MEDIA giant Time Warner is to pursue its copyright complaints against video sharing site YouTube to its new owner Google.

Chairman and chief executive Dick Parsons said that he would continue talks about concerns that the fledgling website was possibly breaking copyright rules by using its material online.

Mr Parsons was reported to have said: "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."

Web search leader Google on Monday bought YouTube for 883 million in stock.

The acquisition will give Google a foothold in the emerging market for video advertising, but it also stands to inherit court challenges from independent film makers, garage bands, television studios and others who may chafe at YouTube users uploading copyrighted material to the site without permission. Legal experts said these artists and companies could look to YouTube's new deep-pocket backer for payment, either in business deals or courtroom battles.

But Mr Parsons has denied his talks with YouTube had anything to do with this week's developments.

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."