Viacom Looks For Google Staff Uploads in YouTube Logs 308
Barence writes "Viacom wants to know which YouTube videos have been uploaded by members of Google's staff, in what could be a potentially explosive aspect of its copyright infringement claim against the search giant."
How about looking for Viacom employees? (Score:5, Interesting)
Surely there must be a few viacom employees (or employees of its partners) who have either watched or uploaded or both (and I am talking about copyrighted crap) videos to Youtube. How about looking for them?
Hell how about looking for MS employees? or Boeing? Might as well look for everything..Good luck Viacom /spit.
Re:common sense (Score:5, Interesting)
Missing the point (Score:5, Interesting)
If someone's employee goes above and beyond the call of duty to help you, that reflects on them as a company.
If the employee screws you over, that reflects on them as a company. Say a middle manager denies you your refund on a defective product. Now, to listen to several people above, "What problem is it of the store's that the manager ignored consumer protection laws?" - should the manager be sued or personally liable? Of course you'd go after the company.
If you get screwed by an employee out of their mandate (say, copying your credit card number down, something clearly not in their job description), you still don't go after the person. You'd be suing their employer for the actions of their employee on the job. Vicarious liability. (Of course, the employee would also be guilty of criminal charges.) Any loss inflicted on the company would either be picked up by civil suit between employer and employee or professional insurance, etc.
Why would this be any different?
Re:Staff posting? (Score:4, Interesting)
You'd be surprised what a night shift can do to people. That and the amenities Google provides to its employees, chances are you will find more than a few employees working late into the night and then taking a 30minute break *cough*. It's speculation but the point is it is quite possible for someone to upload copyrighted stuff using "employer resources".
Youtube Videos on VH1 (Score:1, Interesting)
Didn't VH1 used to have a weekly top 20 videos of the web? I'm sure they didn't have rights to all of those videos. If I had a video that made it on VH1 or any other Viacom channel, I would go after them in a heartbeat.
Re:Right... (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree that YouTube is an excellent way to popularize Viacom's content, but that's not the only business concern of relevance here.
Viacom wants to use YouTube-esque short clips of its videos as a revenue source. And, if Google's employees are uploading infringing content, then YouTube may be actively hampering Viacom's ability to earn ad revenue from its original works. Comedy Central, for example, offers years of Daily Show, Colbert Report, and South Park clips that are supported by ads. YouTube is likely limiting Viacom's ability to capitalize on its intellectual property by substituting for Viacom's in-house video service. That is textbook copyright infringement.
Re:Pointless... (Score:5, Interesting)
Totally unscientific survey: my 4-year old daughter prefers to browse YouTube than television. Admittedly she tends to follow pop videos. But she prefers the mouse to the TV remote.
If it's true that people use YouTube to watch clips from TV programs, then Viacom are even stupider than I thought...
But stupid or not, this seems to be the start of the TV industry joining the music and movie and telecoms businesses in attacking the open Internet.
I wonder what kind of Internet my daughter will have when she grows up.
Re:Pointless... (Score:2, Interesting)
because we all know movie studios are special, holy, blameless businesses who are utterly 'entitled' to profit.
The viability of these industries' business models is gone, kaput, byebye.
The continued facilitation of their nuking every potentially viable replacement off the economic map is orders of magnitude worse than the proverbial "welfare queen".
Not only are they leeching money off our economy directly through legalized extortion, they are strangling new sectors which could actually create jobs in the cradle.
WTF (Score:3, Interesting)
Google should just buy Viacom
Re:Pointless... (Score:3, Interesting)
Oddly enough, this is exactly how radio works. As I understand it, anyone is allowed to play any song on any radio, so long as they pay their royalties through a system which has been established for this purpose.
Yes, but the royalties are negotiated among both partners. You can get a license for a public performance of a movie as well, if you want to.
Now, it would be interesting if there was some sort of radio model for movies, but the difference is that radio stations choose the play list. They don't just let people upload songs that get broadcast, and then pay the piper later.
Re:Pointless... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Pointless... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sorry, are you implying that because I say something positive (or even non-negative), or have a different opinion than you, that I must work for Microsoft or have some sort of financial stake in the company?
Do you actually expect people to discuss topics like these with you with that sort of attitude?