To own or let? Movie marketing blogger Chris Thilk discusses how studios who guard their creative too closely are missing breakout opportunities.

The fear of copyright infringement -- and the potential legal consequences of such -- are the primary focus of a recent Los Angeles Times article about YouTube. Most of the quotes come from legal counsel at entertainment studios and from others who are approaching YouTube, and other video sharing sites, from a "how do we protect our property" perspective. But what the article fails to address is how marketers who get past the "mine mine mine" mentality can actually utilize these sites to their benefit.

Most grown-ups will acknowledge that companies and artists are entitled to protect their copyrighted material, and are due fair compensation for usage of said material. If people are posting full episodes of TV shows, or other creative projects, and are directly taking revenue away from a legitimate business model then that's wrong. But there's a larger consideration here: The use of content that's created for expressly promotional purposes on a viral video site is something marketers should embrace and encourage.

Certainly there are concerns that marketers are facing when it comes to online video. For example, there's the recent call from actors unions that their members are not being fairly compensated when their work is used on new delivery channels such as iPods. There's also the problem some content producers are facing in that viewing offline video online is something new, with no precedent to fall back on. Those issues, though, should be secondary to the advantages that can be gained from making marketing content available online.

For example, take Deep Focus's work to promote Scary Movie 4. They signed a deal with YouTube for the trailer to appear on the site's "featured videos" section for a period of time. Other studios have made similar moves as well, and I think that's fantastic. It's bypassing the consumer, who may have uploaded a lower-quality version version anyway, and makes it available in a streaming, cross-platform, hi-res version.

This strategy delivers content where the audience is, instead of making them come to you. This is how online retail works, it's how search advertising works, and those models are completely transferable to movie marketing. If people are using YouTube, and they are -- especially those in the web-savvy demographics marketers crave -- then that's where your marketing material needs to be. And with the sharing functionality of YouTube and its ilk, the content can be passed around like a bong at a frat party, allowing everyone to enjoy.

YouTube also offers a usability advantage when it comes to actually watching a video. It uses Flash technology that is seamless to the viewer-- that's a major advantage over formats like Apple's Quicktime or Windows' Media Player, which need to be downloaded and installed before videos can be accessed.

I mentioned that some content producers were having problems adjusting to this new world of video uploading and sharing. NBC certainly took it on the chin when they pulled the popular Saturday Night Live "Lazy Sunday" sketch from YouTube (which had taken off based solely on word of mouth-- or word of mouse, as it's sometimes called.) While the clip's online availability was certainly creating buzz that hadn't existed in years for SNL, the network didn't know what to do with the fact that its content was out there and they weren't in charge of it.

It seems that NBC hadn't yet realized, where Deep Focus and the Weinstein Co. (the studio that made Scary Movie 4) have, that ceding control can be a good thing, when it's part of an organized plan. It's scary, but trust me, it will be okay. Letting people talk about your content will actually help.

Chris Thilk has been writing about movie marketing since May 2004. Read full bio.