Viacom Warns Bloggers: Post Clips Of The Daily Show And We'll Sue [Update: Or Not!]
from the fair-use? dept
Update: A comment from someone at Viacom says that The Hollywood Reporter got this story wrong. He correctly noted that we accidentally called their PR guy a lawyer (fixed), but now says that the quote is not about suing, even though that certainly seems to be the implication from the quote. Perhaps I'm missing something. However, Viacom now says:We have always tried to be as permissive as possible when looking at what might be fair use, and we haven't changed our approach at all. Frankly, fair use works for us. I can't recall a time we've ever sued a blogger for the use of a Comedy Central clip, and there's no reason to believe that would be more likely to today.That's an interesting quote from a company suing YouTube for a billion dollars for a lot of fair use clips (including some that Viacom itself uploaded), but ok. We'll take it at face value. Now, here's the original post:
Viacom owns Comedy Central and its hit program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The show makes frequent use of fair use exceptions in copyright to show TV clips from other TV stations as part of the show. But apparently, Viacom and its lawyers think that fair use is only okay for big studios. With the news that Viacom is pulling The Daily Show and The Colbert Report off of Hulu in favor of its own sites, a Viacom
"Yes, we intend to do so," says PR rep Tony Fox. "My feeling is if (websites) are making money on our copyrighted content, then that is a problem."Now, it's true that the video players that each of these shows use on their own official sites do allow for embedding -- but they also have limits (and the player is definitely clunky). But, in response to Mr. Fox, isn't The Daily Show making money off of other's copyrighted content? Why isn't that a problem?
It's really rather disgusting to see big studios like Viacom pretend that fair use only exists when it's in their favor.
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Filed Under: bloggers, colbert report, copyright, fair use, the daily show
Companies: viacom
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Golum Mentality
They want to be the one and only source of the Daily Show and Colbert. I can hear the execs now going "my precious"
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Clueless
A lot of The Daily Show's appeal is to the young generation. I work with them every day, and that group has very negative reactions to this kind of stupidity and hypocrisy. In addition, a lot of these students don't even bring TV's to campus anymore; they rely mostly on services like Hulu.
I like The Daily Show. I am really sorry to hear this announcement that the show will be going off the air. I know know that isn't actually what the announcement said, but it might have well been included because Viacom announced that it is hurting its own program very badly. The really bad part of this is that they will probably blame the show's failure on Piracy, not the incompetence of network executives.
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Re: Clueless
Incompetence seems to be a requirement to be a media executive.
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Viacom is ...
also I have a personal grudge against them for not releasing malcolm in the middle on dvd.
music licensing rights my ass
just do it
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We have always tried to be as permissive as possible when looking at what might be fair use, and we haven't changed our approach at all. Frankly, fair use works for us. I can't recall a time we've ever sued a blogger for the use of a Comedy Central clip, and there's no reason to believe that would be more likely to today.
Jeremy Zweig
Viacom
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We have always tried to be as permissive as possible when looking at what might be fair use
Is that why Viacom has, for instance, sent probably thousands of take-down notices to YouTube for obvious fair use clips, not to mention suing Google for a billion dollars?
If you could clarify these apparent inconsistencies, we'd appreciate it.
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Yes, it's out of context. Check out the quotes in the story. They are brief, and don't specifically talk about litigation at all. #10, you've actually misquoted the quote.
To the extent that a site would simply replicate our content published on Hulu or dailyshow.com, and sell ads against it, it would be high on our list of "targets" for enforcement. *That* was the context of Tony's commentary, and that's not new for us.
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Ok. But you sell ads against the clips you use in The Daily Show, right?
And, please explain "enforcement." That certainly *implies* suing in my book, but perhaps you mean something different?
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(you can replace sue with a C&D or whatever else you want)
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Re:
Ok. I've updated the post. You're right. I thought they quoted a lawyer not a PR person. Sorry about that. However, can you explain what he was referring to in his quote, because it didn't look like he was allowing for fair use?
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These are owners of those sites who don't subscribe to cable, right? Because the way I see it, those who subscribe to cable paid for their content, especially now that Viacom's blackm, er, forced demand of more money for its stations has been agreed on.
Seriously, do you people even have a damn clue what you're doing, Jeremy? Just how many times does Viacom feel it needs to get paid for a *SINGLE* episode?
Never mind. I don't want the answer. It won't be the correct one anyway.
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So there upset others are making money or upset they are not making money?
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Re:
That's satire so it should be all good.
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a rant i did about viacom on this topic years ago
Their unfairness on this topic is remarkable.
As eskay brings up in the comments at the above post, mtv can show our websites or original videos on their network with no problem. But we can't use their clip.
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Woohoo!
For an encore, maybe they could get the show pulled from cable, too. Wow, that would really be exercising some control over their intellectual property!
Anyone want to go in with me on a mutual fund that focuses on shorting companies that let lawyers make marketing and/or strategic business decisions?
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Re: Woohoo!
You should also look at the secondary industries that will be affected by the signings of ACTA and the UK's DEB.
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Also, CNN has shown clips from The Daily Show before, where the CNN reports acknowledge that Jon Stewart has said something about them (and Jon, himself, uses CNN clips to make his point).
I wonder if Viacom will be going after CNN.
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The problem with Lawyers is...
And BTW...The only people who watch John Stuart are teenagers and those who have never functionally matured beyond that level.
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Re: The problem with Lawyers is...
Who the hell is John Stuart? Off-topic comment, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is a really funny show if you have a sense of humor.
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No money
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Viewing On HULU
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trust me no one watchs daily show or colbert anymore
the very very few that do are retarded anyhow.
its like napster and metallica
you download and listen to there stuff after cliff burton died your a noob
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Thank You
Whether or not I agree with the statements you make, I appreciate it tremendously when a company participates in the discussion.
Just thought I'd put that out there.
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The Truth
I do agree that if someone attempts to make money using the clips they should get their ass sued. This is way more important then money. We need to spread the word, organize, get together and turn this train around or things will get worse, and if you are poor already worse is going to be really bad.
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