CNET found someone to complain that the copyright on their content is being infringed by YouTube, and speculates that Apple may have liability too because they are showing YouTube videos on the iPhone.
While copyrighted material can certainly be found on YouTube, winning a case against them for copyright infringement is much harder than it looks. YouTube is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which, among other things, protects sites like YouTube from the actions of its users. Copyright holders are left with filing a notice with YouTube to pull their content down (which they will do), or trying to prove that YouTube moved outside of the safe harbor under the Act.
Viacom and others are trying to do exactly that, and are playing a $1 billion game of poker with Google, YouTube’s parent company. But to add Apple to the mix, who simply show YouTube content but do not host it on their servers, adds a whole additional layer of legal complexity to the case. And it drags another war-ready litigation team to your front door. My guess is all of these hurdles will protect Apple, and we won’t be seeing any litigation over their integration of YouTube into the iPhone any time soon.
So, is it really going to happen? Could there be an iPhone Nano in the making for release from Apple? You read and decide for yourself. An article from CBC news reports the following:
Apple will launch a cheaper iPhone this fall, based on the ultra-thin iPod Nano music player, a JPMorgan analyst said Monday. Kevin Chang sent a note to clients saying a new iPhone is on the way. He based his prediction on unnamed sources in the supply chain and an Apple patent filing published July 5. The application to the U.S. Patent Office, cited in Chang's report, was filed for a multifunctional device with the ability to be used as a phone, transfer data, and play audio and video files, all controlled by a circular touch pad, similar to the iPod scroll wheel.
Chang said a way to follow up the iPhone with a cheaper version would be to convert the Nano into a phone and price it at $300 or lower. The current iPhone retails between $499 US and $599 US, depending on storage space. "We believe that iPod Nano will be converted into a phone because it's probably the only way for Apple to launch a lower end phone without severely cannibalizing iPod Nano," Chang told Reuters. He also said the new phone could be fairly limited in its functions.
The analyst predicts shipments of 30 million to 40 million for the new phones in the 2008 fiscal year.
Chang's report is not the first prediction for a second-generation iPhone. In May, Taiwanese media reported a new iPhone was in the works and would use a different design from the current model. The European iPhone, set for release later this year, is expected to differ from the American version by running on the faster 3G wireless network. Also on Monday, investment bank Piper Jaffray predicted that Apple will release a new widescreen iPod similar to the iPhone, but without the data connections.
