6A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2006
INTERNET
Google purchases popular YouTube
BY MICHAEL LIEDTKE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Associated Press
Google purchased the video-sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion in a deal announced on Monday. The deal is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
SAN FRANCISCO — Internet search leader Google is snapping up YouTube for $1.65 billion, brushing aside copyright concerns to seize a starring role in the online video revolution.
The all-stock deal announced Monday unites one of the Internet's marquee companies with one of its rapidly rising stars. It came just a few hours after YouTube unveiled three separate agreements with media companies to counter the threat of copyright-infringement lawsuits.
The price makes YouTube Inc., a still-unprofitable startup, by far the most expensive purchase made by Google during its eight-year history. Last year, Google spent $130.5 million buying a total of 15 small companies.
Although some cynics have questioned YouTube's staying power, Google is betting that the popular video-sharing site will provide it an increasingly lucrative marketing hub as more viewers and advertisers migrate from television to the Internet.
YouTube will continue to retain its brand, its new headquarters in San Bruno and all 67 employees, including co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. Meanwhile, Google will continue to run a less popular video service on its own site.
The deal is expected to close before the end of the year.
"I'm confident that with this partnership we'll have the flexibility and resources needed to pursue our goal of building the next-generation platform for serving media worldwide," said Hurley, YouTube's 29-year-old CEO.
While most videos posted on YouTube are homemade, the site also features volumes of copyrighted material — a problem that has caused some critics to predict the startup eventually would be sued
into oblivion
YouTube's worldwide audience was 72.1 million by August, up from 2.8 million a year earlier, according to comScore Media Metrix.
Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, the current council president, said all council members "emphasized that the response of the council should be strong, swift and very, very clear in its message and its action."
The 15-nation council urged Pyongyang to return to stalled talks, refrain from further tests and keep its pledge to scrap its clandestine weapons program.
Council experts started discussing the proposals in meetings Monday afternoon, but it was unclear whether China and Russia _ the North's closest allies _ would support some of the tough measures. They include international inspection of all cargo to and from North Korea to limit the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, blanket bans on luxury and military goods, and any material that could be used in the production of weapons of mass destruction.
Bush said the North Korean action "constitutes a threat to international peace and security" and requires "an immediate response" from the Security Council, though he stressed the U.S. remained committed to diplomacy.
》 NORTH KOREA
Bolton told reporters afterward that everybody agreed within 30 minutes that the council should condemn the action and respond quickly, saying "that's remarkable" to have such a unanimous decision.
Before the experts meeting, the ambassadors from the five vetowielding council nations _ the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China met with Oshima.
Security Council condemns recent nuclear testing
Russia was the only country to say it had "no doubts" over the North Korean claim, but the U.S. and other experts said the explosion was smaller than expected and they had yet to confirm it was nuclear.
But just how long it will take members to agree on a resolution remains to be seen.
BY EDITH M. LEDERER ASSOCIATED PRESS
UNITED NATIONS — The world lined up against North Korea on Monday for staging a nuclear test denounced even by key allies. President Bush called it "a threat to international peace and security," and the U.N. Security Council began weighing severe sanctions to punish the impoverished communist nation.
U. S. Ambassador John Bolton and key allies Britain and France also said they would seek tough new U.N. sanctions against the North. The U.S. proposal is aimed at curbing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and would prohibit all trade in military and luxury goods and prevent "abuse of the international financial system."
There was no talk of military action. But the Security Council quickly condemned North Korea's decision to flout a U.N. appeal to cancel the test after the reclusive regime announced it had set off an underground atomic explosion.
But the reaction of world governments reflected little doubt that they were treating the announcement as fact.
"The fact is that in our half-hour, full council meeting this morning, there was no one who even came close to defending this test by North Korea," Bolton said.
The United States, France, Britain and Japan want the resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which deals with threats to international peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression. It allows the council to authorize measures ranging from breaking diplomatic ties and imposing economic and military sanctions to taking military action to restore peace.
But he wouldn't speculate when the council might act, noting that Japan and others already had other suggestions for the text.
With U.S. forces strapped by the twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration repeatedly has said it has no plans to invade North Korea and discussion of military action was absent on Monday.
Neither Russia nor China would say whether they support a resolution that could pave the way for sanctions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Cabinet that Moscow "certainly condemns the test conducted by North Korea."
"I think we have to react firmly," Chinas U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said. "But also I believe that on the other hand the door to solve this issue from a diplomatic point of view is still open."
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the North Koreans "will be facing a very serious attitude on the part of the Security Council and the entire international community;" but he said the council needs to discuss whether that will include sanctions.
North Korea remained defiant. Pak Gil Yon, the North's U.N. ambassador, said the Security Council should congratulate the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, known as the DPRK, instead of passing "useless" resolutions or statements.
"The nuclear test in the DPRK will greatly contribute in increasing the world deterrence of the DPRK" and will contribute "to the maintenance and guarantee of peace and security in the peninsula and the region," he said.
"This shows why we need actions and not just words about North Korea," Bolton told The Associated Press.
Impoverished and isolated, North Korea has built up its military and nuclear programs while relying on foreign aid to feed its 23 million people since its state-run farming system collapsed in the 1990s following decades of mismanagement and the loss of Soviet subsidies.
If the test is confirmed, North Korea would join the current members of the nuclear club _the United States, Russia, Britain, France, India, Pakistan and China. Israel is widely believed to have the bomb but has not publicly declared.
"The development and possession of nuclear weapons by North Korea will in a major way transform the security environment in North Asia and we will be entering a new, dangerous nuclear age." Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a news conference in Seoul after a summit with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.
The United States and its allies, and many of North Korea's neighbors, took the exact opposite view.
Abe, facing his first major foreign policy test since his recent election, called for a "calm yet stern response." Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso warned such a test would "severely endanger not only Northeast Asia but also the world stability."
Bolton told the Security Council that Washington would consider an attack on Japan or South Korea an attack on the United States, according to U.N. diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because the remarks were made at a closed council meeting.
A nuclear armed North Korea would dramatically alter the strategic balance of power in the Pacific region and would undermine already fraying global anti-proliferation efforts.
The United States has defense agreements with the two Asian allies and thousands of U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea and Japan.
"It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the ... people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defense capability," KCNA said. "It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it."
The North is believed to have enough radioactive material for a half-dozen bombs. It insists its nuclear program is necessary to deter a U.S. invasion.