Psst... Want Some Free Advertising On The Daily Show?

from the ads-anywhere dept

Earlier today we argued that it was silly for Viacom to demand that all of its clips be pulled from YouTube, and that it exemplified the type of short-term thinking that's become so prevalent in the entertainment industry in recent years. The company would be better off letting its clips get out there, and serve as promotional content for the actual televised show. It's clear, however, that this media model does bring with it situations that aren't real cut and dry. News.com is reporting that someone affiliated with blog network Gawker Media has been uploading TV clips to YouTube and slapping a brief Gawker ad at the beginning of each clip. On the face of it, it looks like a rather brazen move on the part of Gawker to repurpose the clips for their own benefit, and it's pretty easy to see why content owners would be upset with this practice. There's no easy way to reconcile this situation, or prevent it from happening again. In its terms of use, YouTube already prohibits uploading copyrighted material, so it would be redundant to say something like, "Don't upload copyrighted material, but if you do, definitely don't put your own ads on it." If the practice were to become widespread, it could easily bring more legal headaches to the company, especially as it's developing its own video advertising system, with plans to compensate the copyright holders.