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Viacom: Stop stealing from yourself |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Saturday, 01 September 2007 |
 A commercial made by Christopher Knight caught the attention of VH1 producers which they featured on their show Web Junk 2.0 without Knight's permission. Knight uploaded the clip from the show onto YouTube which was promptly removed by Viacom, VH1's parent company, and claims it violated their copyright.
According to Knight's blog here, he made the commercial as part of his campaign to become a member of the Rockingham County
Board of Education. The clip got the attention of VH1 producers which they decided to feature
it on Web Junk 2.0 without Knight's permission.
Knight said in his blog,
VH1 took the video that I had created and hosted on YouTube, and made it into
a segment of Web Junk 2.0. Without my originally-created content to work
with, VH1 would not have had this segment at all. They based this segment of
Web Junk 2.0 entirely on the fruit of my own labor... so Viacom took a video that I had made for non-profit purposes and without
trying to acquire my permission, used it in a for-profit broadcast. And then
when I made a YouTube clip of what they did with my material, they
charged me with copyright infringement and had YouTube pull the clip. If it were my own content that was used without permission, I would be just as angry too and to be accused of violating Viacom's copyright is a bit absurd. Even though Viacom is so keen on enforcing their own rights they tottally ignore others by creating a program that profits on the creative content of others on the internet.
Also, if you look at the 'Terms of Service' (ToS) of YouTube you will discover that what Viacom is doing also violates its ToS. If you look at 4 (D) of their ToS, it clearly states
You agree not to use the Website, including the YouTube Embeddable Player for
any commercial use, without the prior written authorization of YouTube.
Prohibited commercial uses include any of the following actions taken without
YouTube's express approval... In 5 (A), it goes to say,
... Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your
information and personal use only and may not be downloaded, copied, reproduced,
distributed, transmitted, broadcast, displayed, sold, licensed, or otherwise
exploited for any other purposes whatsoever without the prior written consent of
the respective owners. YouTube reserves all rights not expressly granted in and
to the Website and the Content. This highlights the abuse in power that the big corporations has over copyright. They will sue and threaten everyone that might have violated their copyright but they do not respect the rights of the creators and owners of the content which they use for their own profit.
For the general public, they might not have the knowledge or even the time to fight against them so they just let it go which allows their abuse to keep going. However, we are seeing a change as more and more people are fighting for their rights such as Christopher Knight here and others against the RIAA's lawsuit spamming technique.
Kudos to those who stand up for their rights and set an example for others.
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