News: In Viacom Suit Won’t Snuff Out YouTube, Catherine Holahan of BusinessWeek.com has an insightful assessment of Viacom’s copyright lawsuit against YouTube. The article distinguishes YouTube from Napster, and makes several points in YouTube’s favor.
One point that I was not aware of about Viacom’s lawsuit: Viacom has not asked for an order stopping YouTube’s operation (as apparently was the case in the RIAA’s lawsuit against Napster)–which Holahan suggests means the following: “One reason for this could be that Viacom, owner of youth brand MTV Networks as well as Comedy Central, may not want to anger its key demographic in the same way that the RIAA did when it began to sue users of peer-to-peer sites. Another reason, says Rutchik, is that the whole suit is simply a negotiating tactic to make Google more willing to pay Viacom for its content.”
Analysis: I don’t think we should read too much into Viacom’s language describing the scope of the permanent injunction it seeks against YouTube. It’s pretty generic. I do think Holahan’s suggestion, though, is on target: given YouTube’s popularity, any company that caused or asked for a shutdown of YouTube, even if only temporary, would face a huge, perhaps cataclysmic backlash among millions of YouTubers. I’m reminded of what happened in Brazil when a court ordered it shut down there due to a sex video of a Brazilian model. The Brazilian model Daniela Cicarelli faced so much animosity from fans that she tried to distance herself from the lawsuit. Ironically, Cicarelli works for Brazil MTV, which is owned by Viacom.
There’s already a movement now on YouTube to “Boycott Viacom.” I’m not sure how successfull it will be unless YouTube becomes truly at risk of losing the lawsuit.
July 12, 2007 at 11:53 pm |
The Viacom boycott is not about any potential destruction Viacom might wage on YouTube, but rather Viacom’s actions severely limiting the content one can access on YouTube, which has the potential of destroying YouTube just as much as if YouTube were being forced to shutter. My own personal deep dismay with Viacom’s actions, thus leading me to actively participate in a Viacom boycott, stem from Viacom’s inability to be fair about the music videos it forced out from YouTube. Many of these music videos were rare finds, many of whom hadn’t been aired on American television in years. These music videos were not like episodes of “South Park”, which could be easily found on DVD format if one so wished to view them again. I estimate that at least 3/4 of the videos I saw being forcibly taken down (even before the lawsuit) were never going to be released on any video format; heck, a great majority of the songs those music videos were for have not as yet even been released on CD, so you can tell how pretty obscure a lot of these videos/songs are/were. So Viacom’s actions re: those music videos and the individuals who uploaded them were, in my eyes, incredibly unfair, unrealistic, and detrimental to the quality of service that YouTube was once able to provide. That is why I will continue to participate in a Viacom boycott until or if they allow those music videos back up on YouTube.
July 8, 2008 at 9:16 pm |
Can you believe this? I noticed that there isn’t a single ‘F$@$ Viacom’ video anywhere on the 5 Top Rated pages….I’ve been rating them for days. They were top 3 for the last 2 days, but disappeared now surprisingly. hmmmmmm
And when I went to post comments about that fact I noticed that not one of 10 posts were recorded as new posts…. so I did a test with Vilacom instead… posted right there. BAM!
Like they think we are stupid like them…can’t figure that out …duh….
So they are censoring everyone’s comments across the board on YouTube to prevent the Backlash they are experiencing as their stock is plummeting.
You can’t even post a comment saying anything to that effect that isn’t removed before it hits the site’s live feed. What the hell is that? Fascism? Hell…make Fascist look like a freakin’ snake charmer.
The importance of this is that it isn’t about their copyright issues, its about finding ‘Home Grown Terrorist’ and taking them out.
They are going to use YouTube to find all those ’subversives’ and surprise…their accounts will vanish, their bank accounts will default, their mortgages will fail, and they’ll be removed.
If you’ve read 1984 (you’d see the writing on the wall) it would be referred to as an ‘unperson’ as they delete you from the Web.
This is the true purpose and evil behind Viacom’s law suit. It is a costume for the real agenda – Bush’s people are probably behind it or Murdock’s.
YouTube is the only last vestige of Truth..the only place you can find the truth. If they silence YouTube – They have silenced the world. We can no longer communicate or share the truth or anything but fluff while they continue to rape us without permission and without remorse.
or lube….
I don’t have a camera or anything to strike back with , just the vision of the truth and desire to fight. I hope you are successful in your campaign, I will support you as much as I can before I vanish as well.
It failed in Animal Farm, The French Revolution, and the American Revolution and they will fail again. Viacom is history – no one will touch its products are they are marked ‘FASCIST’!
May the force be with you, always.
BlueAngel