Posted on 08/31/2007 9:43:24 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
Viacom's copyright battle with YouTube took an interesting turn this week, as the company has found itself in the embarrassing position of having highlighted the possibly that it committed a little "for-profit" copyright infringement of its own (some would call it "piracy"). Viacom effectively pointed the finger at itself when the company tried to get a Web Junk 2.0 clip removed from YouTube, only to end up exposing the fact that Viacom's VH1 unit had not obtained permission to use the source video that is featured in the clip. Dizzy yet?
Let's backtrack for a second.
North Carolina political candidate Christopher Knight made a somewhat ridiculous commercial as part of his campaign to become a member of the Rockingham County Board of Education. The commercial featured Knight waving light sabers, paying homage to Star Wars (complete with a Death Star) in a bid for election. He ran the commercials on a local television station at the same time that he uploaded the commercial to YouTube.
The clip eventually got the attention of VH1 producers, who decided to feature it on Web Junk 2.0—a TV show that highlights "funny" videos that were found on the web. Knight says that VH1 never contacted him regarding their intent to use his not-for-profit commercial for their for-profit TV show, but he nevertheless remained amused by the development at the time. 15 minutes of fame, and all that.
Yet it gets worse. Knight subsequently posted a clip to YouTube of the Web Junk 2.0 episode that featured his commercial so that he could post it to his blog, and stream it. VH1 was not amused by Knight's reposting of the clip, however, and sent a DMCA takedown notice to YouTube, which was subsequently forwarded onto Knight.
(Excerpt) Read more at arstechnica.com ...
He should go for the money and make a criminal complaint as Viacom did it for profit. The abuses are getting so bad the EFF is playing whack-a-mole lately defending people against it.
(MTV) Video Awards Seek Jolt From Crowd and Internet (hoping for anarchy and chaos?) (NY Times Published: August 24, 2006)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1689431/posts
Which raises the question: What if some wild fan abandons his network-designated station and rushes toward the beautiful people? “He should be encouraged at all points to storm the stage and to create a television moment that people will talk about at the water cooler the next day,” said Hamish Hamilton, one of the producers. “Or even better, that people will download and put on YouTube the next day.”
bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.