Mark Cuban Has It All Wrong
by Aner Ravon

I may be just a tad over my head here, but Mark Cuban is taking a problematic stand in the Viacon - GooTube charade.

In my previous post I wondered about the sense behind this suing. It didn’t take a prophet to predict high satisfaction from the Mark Cuban front and the prophecy indeed came true.

In his You Go Viacom! post Mark Cuban praises the old litigators. That’s no surprise. His criticism of Google’s self righteous de facto piracy has very often gained my sympathy as well.  

What I didn’t appreciate is the patronizing rational this time:

it never ceases to amaze and amuse me how little understanding of the content business, or the business world in general that many in the blogosphere have.

Let me provide a simple scenario for you.

HBO. HBO charges a monthly fee to subscribers. If someone can watch an HBO show on Google Video or Youtube, even if its divided into 1,3 or 6 parts and re assembled into a playlist, they have far less incentive to subscribe or retain their subscription(s).

HBO in turn, syndicates those shows to cable networks. As an example, A&E paid a reported $2.2 million dollars PER EPISODE of the Sopranos. If the content is available online, do you think maybe it might reduce the value to A&E and HBO of the Sopranos ? And that’s before we even get to overseas syndication. Youtube and Google Video have a great deal of popularity overseas because in many cases US shows are not as readily available. Online international viewing reduces the international revenue opportunity.

Then of course there are DVD sales. YouTube downloads every video right to your PC. Google Video not only downloads to your PC, it provides the option to convert it into a PDA format including the iPod.

So tell me why it makes good business sense for HBO to let users post the content they sell for a ton of money ?

Now some of those who are so self absorbed in net culture and have no idea how the real world works might think that all of this leads to more viewing and consumption. Maybe it does. Maybe for some shows, like those on broadcast TV, it really does help to have as much promotional video for the show, even to the point of full episodes available both on YouTube and Google Video. There are definitely situations where it could help a show gain viewers and increased sales of DVDs. All of which has nothing to do with whether Viacom or any content provider should let users upload video.

I have a secret for you. ITS EASY FOR END USERS TO UPLOAD video to Youtube and Google Videos. ITS EASIER FOR THE CONTENT OWNER to do the same thing.

Hold it Mr. Cuban! You maybe smart but we aren’t all stupid. I first intended to re-battle the argument (posted a comment), then I saw a much better comment than mine, one that I agree with 100% and that is worth sharing in whole:

Mark, I think you’re a smart guy but I think on this issue your are myopic. Everyone who doesn’t have their head jammed up their portfolio doesn’t care. This is purely an issue for people who are already rich who want to exploit their IP to become richer. Real artists are happy when people see their art.

If you make money on a business model which relies upon withholding your content from the masses your model is over. Maybe there is money to be made by fighting content-sharing for another decade (maybe a lot). In the long run the more you get your content out the better. There are a lot of people out there who can get it for free who will pay for it especially when they know the companies they are dealing with are not the corporate equivalent of retarded whores. I honestly think people should go out of their way to download corporate music rather than buy it because the RIAA is such a dastardly organization.

…

Peace and keep posting
Roland

Loved to have said it that well myself.

Aner Ravon
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