The hypocrisy on display here is mind boggling. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070830-viacom-caught-in-copyright-infringement-loop.html
Yep, "copyright infringement" things are just out of control. Too many uber-noobs making and enforcing the laws.
Copyright protection is a good thing, but it needs to be moderate in both legislation and enforcement. Right now it's extreme in both. Copyrights lasting the author's life + 70 years is insane just for starters.
Their was a story that ran locally last nite where the riaa is going after music downloaders from years ago. The example was a 26 year old woman that was issues papers from when she was 18. They siad she downloaded some 500 songs. I'm all for copyright protection, but its no excuse to bully consumer into submission. Sad really. Its a great way to get consumers to buy music.
Viacom is stupid. That's not news, of course, but I really like it when stuff like this happens. I mean, Viacom goes after YouTube for clips of the Daily Show & the Colbert Report, when those clips likely encourage people to watch the show on cable/satellite or purchase episodes on iTunes. But no - you have to watch clips on Comedy Central's website so they can pull down ad revenue there - and they may not make available the sort of clips that people would want to see or share. I understand why copyright is in place and why it's a good thing. But these corporate behemoths are pushing things too far.
Absolutely. Unfortunately, the blurring of individual and corporate ownership has gone a long way towards eroding any semblance of moderation.
I know Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert think it's a joke that Viacom (who owns Comedy Central) are beinig as ridiculous as they are about all this youtube stuff. Before the two aforementioned geniouses took their two-week Labor Day vacation they poked fun at Viacom and testifying in court on their shows and during a few of their "tosses" to on another.
Yeesh. You'd think with our lawsuit happy world, there's be all sorts of lawyers wanting a big fat settlement from Viacom for every case they take things down incorrectly.
