It was bound to happen -- Big Media wants to know who is uploading copyrighted material to YouTube, now owned by Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). Short of raking out lawsuits in expedient fashion, 20th Century Fox has served YouTube a subpoena as of yesterday. It wants to find out who uploaded copies of entire recent episodes of "24" and "The Simpsons." Those are two of the largest-audience shows for Fox -- so understandably, the company is a tad miffed.

I have news for them -- although YouTube's presence has expanded into the limelight in the last year -- capped by extensive media coverage when Google bought the company in exchange for some of its stock -- there have been entire episodes of all kinds of copyrighted television shows on YouTube since its inception. There are constant "we are policing our site" comments from YouTube and now from Google, but freeloaders of content and violators of copyrights will *always* find a way to make tons o' content available to anyone with a 'net connection. Say it with me here -- BitTorrent.

Will media companies that produce mostly video content start barking like wild dogs in a similar fashion to the music industry (RIAA) that has sued its own customers and has taken down file-sharing networks due to massive copyright abuse? If so, the first few fertile steps are being laid now, since YouTube requires just a web browser (no file-sharing software or network knowledge needed).

The MPAA has been following in the RIAA's footsteps in trying to crack down on users posting copyrighted content online for all to see (and hear). In this Fox example, the damage "could be" worse. Why? Well, the "24" episodes in question actually appeared on YouTube before their prime time premiere on January 14. When copyright material starts making it to YouTube before it officially airs, we have issues -- and some network execs have tissues.