I hear a lot of chatter on netcasts these days focusing on the legal battles that have ensued following the acquisition of YouTube by Google.

“Doesn’t look like such a good deal now does it?” Tom Merritt of CNet’s Buzz Out Loud podcast stated in a recent segment.

When one looks beyond the in-your-face idea of offering advertisement within these videos one can easily see there is great value in the YouTube world.

Google built an empire delivering advertisements across the Internet, and now it plans to distribute content from media companies just as aggressively.

While Sony BMG and NBC Universal attempt something similar, Google with its vast resources can actively experiment because the company already has a vast reach on the Internet.

The real point is leverage. Google is using YouTube as an enormous amplifier of market power. While big media is still searching for leverage at the core, Google is mastering edge leverage.

Of course, then this leverage can go on to redefine the business models of players along the value chain – in Google’s favor of course.

Most of you have been around a while are used to Microsoft’s tactics of buy, buy, buy. In essence Google has the same philosophy as it