Viacom’s ‘double-standards’
p2pnet.net news:- “This war, to paraphrase Carl von Clausewitz, is only the continuation of negotiations by other means.”
That’s how The Economist sums up the supposed battle between Google’s YouTube and Viacom. But it makes good copy and the media are using it to the full.
Viacom is suing Google and GooTube for $1 billion, citing Comedy Central as being among the sites being pirated by Google.
But ValleyWag has a fascinating take on it, namely, why isn’t Viacom also suing other video sharing sites offering copyrighted material, “such as iFilm?”
Why not indeed? ValleyWag believes it has the answer.
iFilm, “is owned by – you’ve guessed it – a media conglomerate that just declared war on Youtube, Viacom itself,” says the post, going on, “Though we can understand why the aged mogul, who controls two separate media conglomerates with a mixture of movie, TV and internet units, might be confused”.
It also features, “a clip from Oprah’s chat show, its copyright jealously protected, which we loaded up to iFilm, on which Viacom sells advertising, and enriches itself, presumably by exploiting the devotion of Oprah’s fans”.
“What iFilm does is take videos off of YouTube, remove the watermark, post them on their site and then LICENSE them to other companies,” Double Banger stresses. “The charge people to license video to which they don’t own the rights and in many cases were ripped from YouTube and infringe on people’s copyrights. That is the real issue. Oh, and guess what they provide in exchange for the license fee? Indemnification from a claim from the copyright holder!”
Says Nick Denton:
“iFilm allows exactly the same video sharing as Youtube. In the former case, Viacom benefits; in the latter case, it is outraged. The company can’t have it both ways, at least not without its inconsistency being highlighted.”
(Cheers, Jazz, and a happy St Paddy’s day to you too : )
Also See:
continuation of negotiations – Viacom videos: $4.17 each, March 16, 2007
being pirated – Viacom, YouTube and the DMCA, March 15, 2007
ValleyWag – Viacom’s own video pirates, March 16, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
March 17th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
There are also lots of Viacoms videos on Myspace also.