Mark Cuban eyeing YouTube foe?

Mark Cuban, one of YouTube's most outspoken critics, has expressed interest in buying a news organisation that has filed a lawsuit against the video-sharing company.

Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and co-founder of HDNet, is eyeing TV news company the Los Angeles News Service, which is owned by Robert Tur - a famed helicopter pilot and journalist who alleged in a lawsuit filed last July that YouTube encouraged users to violate copyright law.

Tur filed suit after finding someone had posted some of his footage, including images from the 1992 Los Angeles riots, on YouTube without his permission.

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Cuban's interest in Tur's company, a small news organisation that produces video which can easily be leased, is bound to raise questions about whether the billionaire is on some kind of personal jihad against YouTube - something he vehemently denies.

Of his interest in buying the news operation, Cuban said via email: "They are the first company to cover news in high definition in LA. That's very valuable to me."

However, in September Cuban appeared before a group of advertisers in New York and told the crowd that only a "moron" would buy YouTube, and that the company was sure to be sued into oblivion.

Last month, he again caused a stir when he found an anonymously written blog on a media website and posted it to his own website Blogmaverick.com. Included in the post were accusations that Google tried to eliminate YouTube's copyright problems by paying off large media companies. Google CEO Eric Schmidt later denied the accusation. Less than two weeks later, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65bn.

A YouTube spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

The anonymously written blog also asserted Google conspired with entertainment companies to file lawsuits against YouTube's competitors to prevent them from gaining ground on the video-sharing company.

Should Cuban acquire Tur's company, he might have a chance to see for himself whether any of the allegations are true. Because of his lawsuit, Tur could be entitled to see some of YouTube's internal documents as part of the discovery phase of his case. Cuban said he isn't interested in acquiring Tur's company for that reason.

On the contrary, Cuban said, he has spoken out in favour of companies accused of copyright violations in the past: "Copyright is a topic I've been interested in for a long time. Anyone who thinks this is a new thing for me to talk about or a jihad just isn't aware of my history."

As for YouTube's leadership, Cuban wrote: "I have never met those guys, and wish them the best. I don't have feelings one way or the other for them or the company... In fact, I appreciate that they let me use their bandwidth to host things."

Tur declined to provide any details about the negotiations with Cuban. "Mark is a great guy and a visionary," Tur said. "I really can't talk about anything."

As for YouTube, Tur said the popular video-sharing site has offered to settle the copyright case. YouTube representatives inquired whether Tur would be interested in receiving a share of the advertising revenue generated by his video clips, according to Tur. YouTube has offered to license Tur's footage, he said. Tur and his attorney continue to review the offers.

Greg Sandoval writes for CNET News.com