U.S. Government to YouTube: WOW! But 'Take that stuff down'
WOW! WOW! WOW!
Is how Congressman Ed Markey acclaimed the "historic debut" before the United States Congress of Chad Hurley, YouTube co-founder and Google stockholder:
You are an historic figure, that is why so many members of Congress came today, an unprecedented high number of members, they came to see you.
Yes, "King" Hurley was received by Congressman Markey Thursday as a world hero, not a Congressional witness.
REALLY? Is that the message that the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet ought to be sending regarding the import of his public hearing on the "Digital Future of the United States"?
Markey invited Hurley to co-star in their own clip-culture YouTube video upon the conclusion of his committee's "grilling" of the YouTube "King".
Markey could seemingly not find enough ways to heap prasies on Hurley:
How does it feel to know that every one of the presidential candidates, every one of these people who is trying to become the most important person in the world, is trying to figure out how to use YouTube in order to become President?
I don't think you get credit for all the new jobs that are beeing created in campaigns. People are being hired just to figure out how to use YouTube. You have created a lot more employment in America than YouTube's 200 jobs.
Do you have any advice to members of Congress who are thinking of using YouTube in their campaigns?
Markey repeatedly underscored the honor it is for Congress to receive Hurley. Hurley offered that the existence of YouTube videos help "children in Africa."
Markey concluded:
What you have done is truly revolutionary, that is something that very few people who have ever lived in the history of the planet can say about something that they have invented.
It was an honor for us to have you here today. We are going to look back at this as a big, big moment. We had Tim Berners-Lee in two months ago, but no one has quite figured out how to take it to another level the way you have.
WHEW! Markey's effusive embrace of Hurley was not a universal one, though.
Representative Mike Ferguson during the hearing on YouTube's copyright record, as reported by PC Magazine:
If someone puts a clip of a movie or a show from Fox, that is a copyright violation.
Ferguson was dubious and said that he could search on YouTube at that very moment and find thousands of clips posted by users who clearly do not own the rights to the material.
"Why don't you take that stuff down?"
WHY NOT MR. HURLEY? Look to the DMCA, the "historic" Chad asserted.
Well, many will soon be doing just that, in a court of law, not one of public opinion, as I present in detail in Google at Risk: YouTube class action lawsuit changes DMCA copyright game