Mark Cuban: YouTube is doomed

Spectrum Online: Mark Cuban: YouTube is doomed. Excerpt:

  Cuban: … So much of YouTube’s  success and model is based on the safe harbor—which  seems really slippery. … If you [consider] the safe harbor, I don’t think YouTube is a service  provider. Two, it says that if you are aware of infringement, you have got to do something about it—and how can they not be aware of this? Three, it says that if you benefit financially from it, then you are liable.  Well, there are banner ads everywhere, there’s your infringing equipment.

IEEE Spectrum: Where do you see YouTube 10 years from now?

Cuban: They are gone. They will be rolled right into Google Video,   and Google Video will have ways to evaluate the video  before it’s posted, and that will be fine. And maybe YouTube URLs will redirect to Google Video. If anything, if I’m wrong, and the safe harbor laws apply, then I’ll  create a business leveraging that. Because if safe harbor laws might apply, and YouTube chooses to limit  their file sizes to 100 megabits—I will limit file sizes to 100 terabits! Let’s see what kind of good stuff we can have.

I believe Cuban means megabytes and terabytes. But, interesting prediction.

JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.