Tech Crunch discusses YouTube's potential valuation in the context of copyright issues, concluding:

The valuation [of $1.5 billion] isn’t crazy based on at least one comparison, by the way. Grouper’s recent sale to Sony for $65 million suggests a YouTube valuation of around $2 billion when you look at relative traffic. YouTube may get their $1.5 billion in the near future. But first they’ll have to find a buyer with a strong stomach for IP wars, and an even stronger legal team.

This type of massive low-cost syndication of low-quality streamed content is less than a year away from becoming the de facto launch strategy of professional and amateur content alike. While the lawyers may not understand this yet, the marketing guys certainly do. When content owners begin taking down copyrighted materials from YouTube, they become less culturally relevant. Has Jon Stewart’s relevance and consequent profitability to the studio declined as a result of his frequent free appearances on YouTube?

While I don’t have a great deal of confidence in the intelligence of the studio system, the positive impact YouTube is having on the distribution and relevance of quality television programming is soon going to become incontrovertible. Recent deals with Warner are the first indications of this effect. YouTube is quickly being woven into the fabric of a new video marketing and distribution model.

ADDENDUM: The 463 blog has more discussion of YouTube and copyright, and the import of its deal with Warner, too.

posted by James DeLong @ 3:38 PM | Media: Video, Music...

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