• The New York Times, Monday, April 9, 2007 11:15 AM

Holes in its methodology notwithstanding, that Vidmeter study, which said copyrighted material accounts for less than 9% of all videos on YouTube, continues to get a lot of press. Most reports harp on its use of deleted videos to conduct the study, a New York Times report explores the possible merits of its findings.

Indeed, Vidmeter's study could take the wind out of Viacom's sails ahead of its $1 billion lawsuit against Google and YouTube, says Internet industry analyst Henry Blodget, He says the findings represent "the opposite of consensus" --at least as far as big media is concerned. Though few in number, big media clips represent the largest percentage of page views on YouTube. Not so, according to the Vidmeter study.

However, others believe the majority of big media clips on YouTube go undetected for months, in which case, the Vidmeter study's sample group is flawed. But no one--not even Google--knows just how big a number that is. Regardless, it's hard to say the Vidmeter study is insignificant. Indeed, the next set of findings in particular will be very interesting, because stricter mandates from Viacom and NBC to remove content will have been in effect throughout the entire testing period.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »