Google could also help solve YouTube’s “Napster” problem. Much of the copyrighted material on YouTube is posted without the permission of TV networks and music studios. Google has existing relationships with many of those companies and the engineering muscle to figure out a way to screen YouTube for infringing content. Still, both firms decline to comment on the acquisition rumor, and Microsoft, Yahoo and Viacom have also spoken to execs of the 60-employee start-up over the past three months. So don’t rush to visit GooTube.com just yet.
