Chad Hurley was on my flight last night…

Ran into Chad Hurley of YouTube fame on my flight from JFK to San Fran. I congratulated him on the huge success… my hat is off to those dudes for threading the needle, and I told him that. He told me they are working on some great technology to identify copyrighted content and alert copyright holders about it, and that was why they didn’t get smacked down by lawsuits.

I have to say I love Google and the fact that they are willing to take such aggressive risks when it comes to copyright issues. I think success in our space is going to be determined by who is willing to push the legal envelope and deal with the risks and ramifications of doing so. Yes, I’ve been hard on those guys about the copyright issues, but at the end of the day I’m happy for any entrepreneur who makes it. It might be that we look back on YouTube as the company that danced close to the Napster line but that taught copyright holders exactly how valuable their content would be. If that happens we will all thank them for creating the marketplace.

So, congrats guys… all the best.

Jason

PS – Dude… coach?!?!?!?? Really? Get some jet share/buy a Falcon!