Google’s YouTube troubles just got kicked up a notch.
Italian media company Mediaset SpA is suing YouTube and its owner, Google, for at least 500 million euros ($779 million).
Mediaset claims that Google and YouTube carried out the “illegal distribution and commercial use of audio and video files,” according to a Bloomberg report:
According to a sample analysis [...]

Jason Calacanis has published a smart post today, looking at the implications of Google Knol - and the idea that Google’s now a content company competing with Wikipedia, media networks and you as a blogger, vlogger or podcaster.
When Google announced Knol, we said “Google is looking for a way to monetize user-generated articles, effectively paying [...]

Back in 2006, we suggested that YouTube as you know it is dead, when Google bought the site for $1.65 billion and money came into the picture in a big way.
Since then, Google’s admitted it’s got a problem trying to make money off of YouTube, and admitted that more than 97% of the videos on [...]

Google today announced Knol - an alternative to Wikipedia that promises to pay authors.
Getting Google’s advertising onto more and more pages is key to the company’s growth. Wikipedia poses an obstacle to Google’s growth, though, because it’s ad-free and quickly becoming becoming the most popular source for information on all sorts of topics.
To fight this, [...]

Google’s problem with YouTube is even bigger than many thought.
More than 97% of YouTube’s videos are deadweight - videos that the company can’t put ads on.
According to Silicon Alley Insider’s Michael Learmonth:
We know Google’s (GOOG) YouTube is a tough sell for advertisers. But video site’s sales team may be having an even tougher time than [...]

Free video hosting service Vimeo has announced that it’s banning gaming videos, becuase they’re space hogs that don’t meet the goals of the site:
The Vimeo staff has decided that we are no longer going to allow gaming videos on Vimeo. Specifically, we are no longer going to allow game walk-throughs, game strategy videos, depictions of [...]

Google announced today that it had reached an agreement with Viacom that will avoid a media debacle over YouTube users privacy:
As we let you know on July 4, YouTube received a court order to produce viewing history data. We are pleased to report that Viacom, MTV and other litigants have backed off their original demand [...]

Radiohead and Google have partnered on a new project that is a very cool example of using cutting-edge video technology, social media and an open source approach to promoting music.
Radiohead’s latest video, for House of Cards, was created without cameras or lights. Instead, 3D plotting technologies collected information about the shapes and relative distances of [...]

Internet TV is growing at an insane rate. According to comScore, U.S. Internet users viewed more than 12 billion online videos during the month, up 45 percent versus year ago.
Nearly 142 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 85 videos per viewer in May.
Google Sites (mainly YouTube) attracted the most viewers (83.8 million), who [...]

Google’s got a big problem with YouTube - the melting-pot nature of user-generated media.

This, along with a billion-dollar lawsuit, courtesy of Viacom, is keeping Google from making money on 96% of its content.

It’s time for Google to settle with Viacom, and get on with building a business based on what makes YouTube unique - user-generated media.