10 Pushy Questions for Mark Cuban

March 23, 2007


 
Mark Cuban
Co-owner of 2929 Entertainment, with holdings that include HDNet, Magnolia Pictures, Magnolia Home Entertainment and Landmark Theatres

Related Links:

Cuban's Dallas Mavericks bio
Cuban's blog
More 10x9 Q&As
Q 1: You recently subpoenaed Google to try to obtain the names of users who have uploaded copies of your movie. What will you do with those names if you get them?

Protect our content and encourage them to stop using YouTube and Google Video as an outlet for pirated content, among other things.

I suspect that from time to time, we will get the e-mails and actually be able to make contact with users. That is when it could get interesting. I want to ask them some simple questions. The first of which is, why? Sure, there are a lot of possible and obvious answers, but maybe they will tell me something new or interesting that I can learn from.

The second question will be whether they were induced by Google in any way to upload the video.

Q 2: Is there any point at which you'd consider litigation against those you believe are infringing on your copyrights?

Consider it yes, but only if they refused to stop stealing our content and repeatedly posted it.

Q 3: Google CEO Eric Schmidt seems pretty confident that YouTube qualifies for the DMCA safe harbor. What's your view?

He is wrong on so many levels. His concern should be that a court doesn’t shut them down until they have a filtering system in place.

I have covered pretty much everything in my blog, but here is one other element to confirm to you why YouTube is far worse than Napster ever was: Watch a video on YouTube. Then watch it a second time. Notice how the video comes up immediately the second time and from then on? In an effort to save money on bandwidth, YouTube downloads the video you just watched to your computer. You watch it; you have the full copy.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt's 'concern should be that a court doesn't shut them down.'

Nowhere in the uploading agreement that I could find does the user give permission to give a copy of the video to everyone who watches it, and nowhere in the safe harbors does it protect giving a free copy of an infringing video to anyone who asks.

Q 4: What kind of response did you get from your call to people to upload their personal porn collections to YouTube?

A couple people did it, but I wasn’t being literal. Just making a point.

Q 5: Why doesn't HDNet make broader use of DRM?

Why should we? It serves no purpose.

Q 6: What should the music companies' response be to Steve Jobs' recent call for DRM-free music?

None. They should be figuring out more ways to generate revenue from music.

Q 7: What did you learn from the simultaneous, all-format release of Bubble?

That it works, that there is demand on all fronts, and that it creates a better opportunity to make any given film profitable.

Q 8: Is that release strategy viable for bigger-budget films?

Yes. More so. It’s easier for a big-budget film than a small budget. The consumer response would be overwhelmingly positive. Getting the theater owners to go along is another question. They won’t.

Q 9: What impact do you think the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD is having on the business?

Not much. We are still in the early adopter phase.

Q 10: Who would you prefer to play in the first round?

It doesn’t matter at all. I just want us to be healthy and playing our best basketball.

Click for more 10x9 Q&As