The facts are this:

• Viacom is the owner of MTV, Comedy Central DreamWorks Entertainment and a whole host of other media outlets coveted by 20-something’s.
• Viacom is claiming that YouTube, the popular video sharing site owned by Google, is not doing enough to remove copyrighted content like whole episodes of South Park or The Daily Show.
• Google/YouTube says it is doing enough, citing that since it removes clips on demand, it is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

The interesting part of this argument is that of course, this isn’t about copyrights as much as it is about revenue.

Viacom makes their money off of advertisers who pay them to run their ads alongside popular content. YouTube makes its money off of advertisers who sponsor click-through ads that are positioned near or adjacent to their video windows. Every time someone posts a Viacom video on YouTube, it makes it more likely that advertisers will shift their money to the video sharing site, leaving Viacom with the tab of actually producing that content. But wait…isn’t that the very purpose of copyright law; to protect the content producer? Yes and No.

Yes, Viacom certainly has a fair claim that they are loosing revenue to Google/YouTube. In fact, according to today’s Wall Street Journal, top advertisers are shifting billions of dollars out of traditional media like known as radio, TV and print publications. They are instead choosing to plow that money into alternative media outlets like online ads, including those on sites that re-publish other’s content, like YouTube.

The other side of this coin is that as consumers change their media consumption habits, so should media companies change their tactics to derive revenue from those who seek to market to them. We’ve already seen how this is done by some major broadcast networks including Disney’s ABC and NBC Universal’s NBC.

They recognize that users want to see content online, for free. Instead of running away from this trend or putting up roadblocks, they are spurring it on by setting up ways for viewers to see their favorite shows while simultaneously creating new revenue opportunities for advertisers.

Viacom isn’t wrong, they are missing the point. Google/YouTube should be doing more to prevent copyrighted content from being posted however Viacom needs to stop kidding itself. If users are unable to access the free content from Google/YouTube, like water wearing a path around a rock, they will find a way to get it somewhere else.

The point, dear friends, is that consumers are on the side of YouTube and Viacom could probably spend less time trying to change with consumers, rather than trying to fight them.