Weren't we just talking the other day about finessing impasse by transforming litigation into a business deal? I guess we were just a little bit behind the times because it appears that no one even bothers filing a lawsuit anymore -- they go directly to the negotiation that would settle it.

Hmmmm.  You might consider taking the negotiation class I've been providing gratis to lawyers who want to improve their negotiation skills so they can enter the 21st century and make, say, something north of $1 billion on a sale of their start up -- YouTube -- to another company -- GOOGLE -- that was itself a start up only eight years ago (is that possible? and I thought "to google" had been a verb for much, much longer. I grow old . . . . )

The referenced AP story is about the way YouTube emptied its potential liability dumpster before selling itself to a very high bidder.  Whether or not the posting of much YouTube content is "fair use" or not, both companies hedged their bets by causing YouTube to buy the rights to materials it has already posted and that it has been accused of infringing.  Right or wrong, the sound business decision was to strike a deal with CBS and two major music labels to, as the AP story put it, "befriend content providers and avoid copyright infringement lawsuits." 

As AP reported.

The separate agreements with CBS, Vivendi's Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment c[a]me less than a month after YouTube reached a deal with Warner Music Group Corp. Hours after announcing the agreements, Google Inc. announced it would acquire the video site for $1.65 billion.

YouTube and CBS will share revenue from advertising sponsorships of CBS Videos, CBS said.

CBS will also test new YouTube technology that will help the network find copyrighted content on YouTube and remove it. CBS will also be allowed to leave that content on the site, and share revenue from advertising that appears next to the copyrighted video.

Separately, Vivendi's Universal Music Group said Monday it agreed to give YouTube viewers access to thousands of music videos. The company said it and its artists will be compensated not just for the official videos, but also for user-generated content that incorporates Universal's music.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment, a joint venture between Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG, also said Monday it will make video content available on YouTube -- and will also let YouTube users include some catalog songs in their own amateur video uploads.

Sony BMG said it will share advertising revenue with YouTube for all music videos that incorporate audio or video works from the Sony BMG library.

"YouTube is committed to balancing the needs of the fan community with those of copyright holders," said Chad Hurley, chief executive of San Mateo, Calif.-based YouTube.