One of the more controversial and outspoken billionaires on the planet, spoke ill of the ad biz at an ad biz gathering last week.
Mark Cuban, co-founder of HDNet and owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, told execs at Advertising Week, “You guys love to be the trailing edge,” in reference to the industry’s current obsession with viral videos. He also said only a fool would buy video sharing site YouTube. He believes the company will be sued into oblivion for copyright violations.
Viacom, Disney, AOL, eBay and News Corp are presently considered to be YouTube’stop suitors. According to reports, YouTube is asking $1.5 billion dollars.
It needs to be noted that HDNet does not carry any amateur videos, so it’s in Cuban’s interest to dismiss low tech DIY videos as something altogether unsavory.
[via CNNMoney.com]
Cuban is way off on this one. YouTube isn’t going to get sued out of business. So far, they’ve been very cooperative with rights holders, having no qualms about deleting videos at the request of NBC, for example, and NBC has now struck a deal with YouTube to distribute content.
This is not the 90s, and YouTube is not Napster, Mark.