Here's why Google isn't afraid of being relentlessly sued by content owners over YouTube: they are (and have been) negotiating deals with them:

SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced a strategic business relationship designed to make the music company's expansive music video collection available for online streaming at no cost to users. Starting this month, users can watch thousands of videos from SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT on Google Video. In the coming months, users will also be able to access content from SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT artists through Google's partner websites in its AdSense network.

I would not be at all surprised to see a bunch of these sorts of agreements coming in the near term. It looks like Google has more than just a smart tech staff.

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