Google + YouTube: 'Mostly say, hooray for our side'

Yesterday's New York Times front page story by Andrew Ross Sorkin about Google's acquisition of YouTube was the usual "on the one hand, but on the other hand."

File under "Mostly say, hooray for our side."

The people doing internet video say it's great, those on the outside looking in press their noses against the (jealousy) glass and say, "Oh, my."

Notable among these was Mark Cuban, who wrote on his blog, "I still think Google lawyers will be a busy, busy bunch. I don't think you can sue Google into oblivion, but as others have mentioned, if Google gets nailed one single time for copyright violation, there are going to be more shareholder lawsuits than Doan's has pills to go with the pile-on copyright suits that follow."

Yo, Mark: Google's got more lawyers than Doan's has pills, and those lawyerbots are the world's best at playing the legal 4 Corners, such that any and all copyright-related lawsuits will be lost in jurisprudential appeals hyperspace for the next decade until the clock runs out, the fans and Elvis leave the building and the game is called due to lack of interest.

I like Mark Cuban because he's honest and realistic, not having drunk the Kool-Aid that makes so many successful people believe they're somehow uniquely gifted: commenting on what he'd learned from owning the Dallas Mavericks, he said that being great in sports was far, far harder than succeeding in business.

The reason: in sports you have to succeed every day, whereas in business you just have to get lucky once.