YouSued
This is ironic. I just taped the latest Mad Mad Media Minute where I show my appreciation for YouTube, and seconds later I get a message about YouTube being sued by Viacom for $1 billion.
According to an AP article, MTV owner Viacom Inc. said today it has sued YouTube and its corporate parent Google Inc. in federal court for alleged copyright infringement and is seeking more than $1 billion in damages.
The company is claiming that more than 160,000 unauthorized video clips from its cable networks, which also include Comedy Central, VH1 and Nickelodeon, are available on the site.
According to the article, Viacom lashed out at YouTube’s business practices in a statement, saying it has “built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others’ creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google.”
While Viacom does have every right to ask YouTube to take down these copyrighted clips, like many other major conglomerates have before, I kind of feel their righteous statement is flawed.
Yes, YouTube has built a business out of exploiting the devotion of fans, but so have Viacom and every other media company. Fans make entertainment work. Without them, there would be no MTV, Comedy Central and so on.
But the argument is that Viacom is not getting paid for the videos on YouTube ... or are they? It seems to me that watching a 5-minute clip on YouTube could spark some interest in Viacom’s products. I watched several clips from The Colbert Report on YouTube before I decided to become a regular viewer (that’s one funny show) and I’m sure Viacom doesn’t mind that I now watch their network regularly for that and The Daily Show.
And maybe, just maybe, if MTV (or MTV2, 3, 57) would start playing videos around the clock again, we wouldn’t be tempted to take a walk down music video memory lane on YouTube. And I mean real videos, not some stripper dancing in front of a camera pretending to sing for 24 hours a day.
And, as far as the Nickelodeon clips go, the second you stop selling cheap SpongeBob SquarePants memorabilia (your version of ‘exploiting the devotion of fans’ who aren’t old enough to make up their own damn mind) we’ll talk.
As it stands, copyright infringement or not, YouTube rocks. It is the ultimate arena for fans to display their love for their favorite artists. And the sooner media conglomerates realize that, the sooner everyone is going to be happy. Showing your appreciation is not theft. Going into a store and running out with a handful of DVDs without paying for them is theft. There is a difference.
According to an AP article, MTV owner Viacom Inc. said today it has sued YouTube and its corporate parent Google Inc. in federal court for alleged copyright infringement and is seeking more than $1 billion in damages.
The company is claiming that more than 160,000 unauthorized video clips from its cable networks, which also include Comedy Central, VH1 and Nickelodeon, are available on the site.
According to the article, Viacom lashed out at YouTube’s business practices in a statement, saying it has “built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others’ creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google.”
While Viacom does have every right to ask YouTube to take down these copyrighted clips, like many other major conglomerates have before, I kind of feel their righteous statement is flawed.
Yes, YouTube has built a business out of exploiting the devotion of fans, but so have Viacom and every other media company. Fans make entertainment work. Without them, there would be no MTV, Comedy Central and so on.
But the argument is that Viacom is not getting paid for the videos on YouTube ... or are they? It seems to me that watching a 5-minute clip on YouTube could spark some interest in Viacom’s products. I watched several clips from The Colbert Report on YouTube before I decided to become a regular viewer (that’s one funny show) and I’m sure Viacom doesn’t mind that I now watch their network regularly for that and The Daily Show.
And maybe, just maybe, if MTV (or MTV2, 3, 57) would start playing videos around the clock again, we wouldn’t be tempted to take a walk down music video memory lane on YouTube. And I mean real videos, not some stripper dancing in front of a camera pretending to sing for 24 hours a day.
And, as far as the Nickelodeon clips go, the second you stop selling cheap SpongeBob SquarePants memorabilia (your version of ‘exploiting the devotion of fans’ who aren’t old enough to make up their own damn mind) we’ll talk.
As it stands, copyright infringement or not, YouTube rocks. It is the ultimate arena for fans to display their love for their favorite artists. And the sooner media conglomerates realize that, the sooner everyone is going to be happy. Showing your appreciation is not theft. Going into a store and running out with a handful of DVDs without paying for them is theft. There is a difference.
posted by Eric LaRose at
10:47 AM
1 Comments:
Stick to the "words on paper" business.
By
Anonymous, at 9:29 PM
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