Monetizing Video the French Way

Filed in archive Internet TV on November 27, 2006

I wonder if a more direct way to make money off of Internet video is to sue a deep pocket company like Google. At the very least, it is a lot less work than the alternatives.

The producer of "The World According to Bush" is suing Google for distributing the film for free on Google Video. Oh, no, Mr. Google; the production house is a French firm and the legal action is in front of a Paris court!

"The World According to Bush" is a two-hour film investigating President George W. Bush's administration and the Bush family, including its connections with the Bin Laden family.

In a statement, Flach Film (the producer) warned that a legal Internet video market could not develop if such practices were allowed. "Flach Film requests the court to sentence Google to provide compensation for the loss resulting from these illegal acts." Later on the producer said that Google had "not acted as a simple host but as a fully responsible publisher."

"We made estimates of the prejudice, and it goes well beyond 500,000 euros ($648,700). The film has been downloaded about 50,000 times, and it has certainly been copied afterwards," Jean-Francois Lepetit, producer of the film, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

A spokeswoman for Google France said that Google had removed links to the film from its sites. I did a quick check and noticed that the video is indeed removed, however, a 7-minute clip of the 2-hour movie is available on YouTube.