gibbergibber - 10:01 am on Mar 14, 2007 (gmt 0)

-- As I understand it you do not have permission to share copyrighted content (be it through filesharing or through hosting it for streaming or downloading on your site). If you do you those who hold the copyright can take you to court. --

I agree, Google is clearly responsible for this as everyone knows the majority of YouTube's revenue comes from advertising alongside pirated videos. You only have to take a look at YouTube's own official "most watched" charts in various categories to see it's chock-full of stolen material.

The grey area here which Google will try to exploit is whether the courts see Google as the company running the site, or more like an ISP which just allows individual users to run their own sites.

ISPs obviously can't be held responsible for the illegal actions of users on their network, just as a phone operator can't be held responsible for crimes committed using their phone network.

IMHO though there's no way Google can claim this ISP-like defence because they know that the main use of YouTube is for illegal activity and that's where most of YouTube's profits come from. They have knowledge of what's going on, and they make money from what's going on. That can't possibly comply with this "safe harbor" legislation.