mark cuban thinks that anyone who will buy youtube is a moron. i guess he is talking from his own personal experience, since yahoo! proved to be morons for buying his company, broadcast.com for over $5 billion…

his big reason has to do with the legal liabilities. that as soon as someone with deep pockets (say yahoo! or viacom) will buy youtube the record labels and movie studios will file their lawsuits.

he also does not believe that advertisers should be really interested in putting their ads on user-generated content.

i kind of agree with his first point. copyright laws being so twisted make for a very real risk for youtube or anyone who would acquire them. i believe youtube (and its likes) are discussing the copyright issues with the big copyright holders, and hopefully they will come to some sort of an agreement.

i disagree with his second point. there are now over 100 million videos being watched on youtube daily. they reach a massive audience, and are also collecting information about their userbase. i don't think IBM or GM will buy ads there, but consumer brands who are targeting the 15-35 demographic will do well to advertise there. and youtube could offer much more than the plain-vanilla video ad.

mark cuban just does not like youtube very much. for whatever reason it rubs him the wrong way.