Google Seeks a ‘Legal Eagle’

Though Google wants to cozy up to Big Media as best it can, the monster from Mountain View is suiting up in the finest armor just in case a battle ensues between itself and its stubborn, reclusive Hollywood “partners.”

Friday, news hit Red Herring, a technology weekly, about Google’s quest for a “high-level legal eagle.” The company did the super-conventional thing and posted a help-wanted ad for a lawyer adept in wading through intellectual property and digital media law legalese. One would suspect Google of having several such minds on board full-time. One would be wrong to have such thoughts. Don’t worry. Lots of cash tends to sniff out the best fish in any given sea.

Perhaps more interesting than the job listing was where it was posted. Yahoo!’s Hot Jobs website, yessiree. Of course, Google has yet to create its own job listing bulletin (at least for public consumption), but they could probably have done better with a Craigslist entry. Or maybe what many have already tried: posting the request on YouTube. Sergey and Larry haven’t gotten much face time with the public lately, it could do them good. Maybe they’re camera shy.

On to the job post. Google is clearly gearing up for a battle and wants to be prepared for the barrage it’s going to endure from the media. We look at the latest string of news on YouTube vs Big Media and find it nonsensical to think we won’t see a battle. Indeed the only nonsensical thing out of all of this will be the battle itself.

The average individual that spends considerable time online is not going to like the media hitting at Google, so the company is pretty much on sound footing with the public. I honestly can’t think of a moment in the last couple of years when someone like Viacom or NBC said, “Hey, free publicity on YouTube. Why not?” Any sense won’t be knocked into ‘em until the clash. The people can boost the network ratings by spreading clips of shows all they want, but business bigwigs aren’t having any of it. They’d rather spend millions on ads than have Average Joe do their work for them.

But as far as the legal stuff goes, we’ve no idea who’s going to end up on top. Congress is pretty friendly with the media. They’ve got lots of lobbyists over in Washington. And there’s really no other way out for the likes of YouTube than to have a very influential company like Google step up to the plate with a very knowledgeable representative – outside or homegrown – to debate with the dinosaurs on why the old copyright model is dying and why sites that carry billion-dollar price tags can actually be very good for them.

We know, we know, media doesn’t want to adapt. They’ve worn in their luxurious leathers and to move against their will doesn’t sit well with them. They wonder why we can’t play by the rules and respect copyright and the copyright owner. Google needs to find the right voice to tell them that the aged hindrance that is copyright needs to be changed and lightened to allow NBC to work in unison with YouTube without losing the millions it’s been losing. I mean, we shouldn’t have to put up with so much damn “reality TV” just so the big boys can post profits and get their stocks to finally gain some grip.

We trust that Google’s on the side of innovation, and that no matter what, the consumer will win out in the end. The sooner those at Viacom and the rest get a lesson on fair use and why it works not only for the consumer but for the creator, the sooner we can get on with things without having to watch for letters from the RIAA and the MPAA. We shouldn’t have to watch millions, even billions being wasted away on an intellectual property war rather than watching the money go to stuff we do want to watch, hear, read, etc. The media houses should take Google’s motto, “don’t be evil,” for themselves. By doing so, they might finally see a turnaround.