Activists "reverse sue" Viacom for YouTube removals!

Forum Moderators: goodroi

Message Too Old, No Replies

Activists "reverse sue" Viacom for YouTube removals!

tedster

6:17 pm on Mar 22, 2007 (gmt 0)

Note - neither Google nor YouTube were mentioned in this "reverse" lawsuit. It goes directly to Viacom.

Activist groups sued the parent company of Comedy Central on Thursday, claiming the cable network improperly asked the video-sharing site YouTube to remove a parody of the network's "The Colbert Report."
Although the video in question contained clips taken from the television show, MoveOn.org Civic Action and Brave New Films LLC argued that their use was protected under "fair use" provisions of copyright law.
They said Viacom Inc. should have known the use was legal and thus its complaint to YouTube to have the video blocked amounted to a "misrepresentation" that is subject to damages under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
[url=http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/Y/YOUTUBE_VIACOM?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT]Wired article

maximillianos

6:24 pm on Mar 22, 2007 (gmt 0)

Nice. I new I should have went to law school. Though I do like my career as a publisher...;-)

rarethings55

8:52 pm on Mar 22, 2007 (gmt 0)

This literally just made my day.

Keniki

11:45 pm on Mar 22, 2007 (gmt 0)

What a great time it must be right now to be a lawyer specialising in the internet..........

They must be making a fortune.

Clark

11:49 am on Mar 23, 2007 (gmt 0)

This DMCA thing clearly needs work.
Anyone who finds these topics interesting btw, should never miss Mark Cuban's blog.

skunker

1:18 pm on Mar 23, 2007 (gmt 0)

Are activists becoming the new extremists? Geez....can't tell the difference sometimes.

alexdino1

2:52 pm on Mar 23, 2007 (gmt 0)

I still have a problem with the whole "it's ok to publish content on my site until the owner tells me to take it down". A lot of money is being made on OPW (Other people's work). That being said...I love YouTube.

tedster

5:58 pm on Mar 31, 2007 (gmt 0)

The story continues... an incisive response from Google's legal counsel, Michael Kwun:

In February, after negotiations broke down, Viacom requested that YouTube take down more than 100,000 videos. We did so immediately, working through a weekend. Viacom later withdrew some of those requests, apparently realizing that those videos were not infringing, after all.
Though Viacom seems unable to determine what constitutes infringing content, its lawyers believe that we should have the responsibility and ability to do it for them.
Washington Post article [washingtonpost.com]