Viacom Demands YouTube Remove Videos

AlHunt writes "According to the folks at PCWorld Viacom has publicly scolded YouTube for continuing to host throngs of Viacom videos without permission. They are demanding that over 100,000 of its clips be removed from the site. This includes content from Comedy Central (no more Daily Show), MTV, Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, and VH1. YouTube has acknowledged receiving a DMCA request from Viacom, and the article notes what a dire precedent this could be if Google can't reach an agreement with Viacom and its fellow IP holders."

Who didn't see this coming

[CrazyJim1]

You need to make deals with copywright holders to show/sell their product online. The hard part is negotiating deals with everyone, not just having a site that supports video.

Re:Bad for Viacom

[ZachPruckowski]

Viacom IS Comedy Central. But you're right that lots of Comedy Central people seem to be savvy to this. When Colbert jested that Youtube owed him $400 million or whatever, he meant the opposite.

The takedown is already happening...

[MsGeek]

Lots of content disappeared yesterday. A lot of it was Viacom stuff. I'm fully expecting more of my favorites to come up with "content removed" notices.

Viacom has been known for its actions in the past. For example: yanking Ren & Stimpy from its creators because Viacom wanted more control. This is par for the course with these folks.

Re:A Series of Tubes....

[Headcase88]

You mean the Daily Show [comedycentral.com] is no longer available on the Internet?

Re:Bad for Viacom

[eln]

Viacom does not object to their content being on YouTube as such. What they don't agree with is that YouTube gets ad revenue from their videos, and Viacom doesn't get a cut. YouTube (Google) has already negotiated deals to pay a portion of ad revenue to other content providers, such as CBS. Viacom, however, feels (probably rightly so) that their content provides far more traffic to YouTube than the other providers that have deals, and so they want a sweeter deal than the others got. Until they have that deal, they will continue to make YouTube take down their content.

It's not so much that Viacom hates their stuff being on the Internet, it's that they don't like other people posting their stuff on the Internet without getting a piece of the pie themselves.

Legal videos were erroniously taken down as well

[supersat]

It looks like Viacom automated their DMCA complaints, and included several videos in their DMCA notifications that they clearly don't hold the copyright to. One of the affected users also writes a Harvard law blog, and posted about it [harvard.edu].

Thank goodness NBC has good sense

[theurge14]

NBC has been using YouTube to their advantage to drum up interest in their shows. Recent clips that come to mind are Lazy Sunday and D*** In a Box from SNL:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=NBC [youtube.com]

Viacom should be taking notes.

Re:Thank goodness NBC has good sense

[BobSutan]

CBS did this as well. If it wasn't for YouTube I'd never known about Jericho. Its got an interesting premise and is worth checking out despite the imperfections in the show's execution. Looking back at the show's post-catastrophe storyline, it strikes me as a contemporary version of Battlestar Galactica (which is by far the best show on TV these days).

Non-infringing videos caught up in the sweep

[BannedinBoston]

Viacom forced YouTube to take down 100,000 videos today, and to send out tens of thousands of DMCA Complaint notices. Viacom made the list of "infringing videos." How did they make it? I bet they used spiders. The spiders were not as sophisticated as one might hope. I suspect that thousands of truly innocent videos are now blocked on YouTube. This happened to me yesterday. ahref=http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/02/ 100000-mistakes-by-viacom/rel=url2html-27817 [slashdot.org]http:/ /blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/02/100000-mista kes-by-viacom/> I received a DMCA Complaint for a genuine personal video that is certainly not infringing on Viacom. Here is the complaint. ahref=http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/02/ viacom-owns-this-the-original-of-this-video-was-ta ken-down-from-youtube-at-viacoms-request/rel=url2h tml-27817 [slashdot.org]http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/ 02/viacom-owns-this-the-original-of-this-video-was -taken-down-from-youtube-at-viacoms-request/> Here is the video, now hosted at Google Video. Let me know what you think! John Palfrey of the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School blogged about my situation. ahref=http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2007/02 /02/viacoms-cease-and-desist-letters-for-a-home-vi deo/rel=url2html-27817 [slashdot.org]http://blogs.law.harvard.edu /palfrey/2007/02/02/viacoms-cease-and-desist-lette rs-for-a-home-video/> He received a very nice email from a man named Michael Fricklas of Viacom. Mr. Fricklas apologized for the mistake, and said that it had already been corrected. Hmmm. When I last checked, which was just a minute ago, the video was blocked. How many Slashdot folks have the same problem? How many "mistakes" were made? Please let us know. Was I the only one???? Maybe! PS There is an online center for sharing complaints if you think you are an innocent victim of Viacom. ahref=http://www.toptensources.com/topten/YouTube- and-Viacomrel=url2html-27817 [slashdot.org]http://www.toptensourc es.com/topten/YouTube-and-Viacom>