Comments on: A Simple Solution to the Viacom vs. Google Lawsuit

By: Ara Pehlivanian

Ara Pehlivanian — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:50:27 +0000

Luke: I agree, and believe me, I’m the first to defend copyrighted material but in this case it’s just silly. The “loss” that they claim is far less than the gain they’re getting in exposure and catering to an eager fan base. The trouble is, lawyers and bean counters run these companies, not creatives. It’s too bad really.

By: Luke

Luke — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:45:35 +0000

You are right - there are many companies out there that actually spend money on various guerrilla campaigns, viral advertising and etc… Youtube provides them exposure to potential millions of viewers and they get upset…

Now I understand that people posting full TV episodes on YouTube, or uploading whole movies in multiple parts may be problematic here. But how many people do upload full movies and episodes?

I think that bulk of the “infringing” material on youytube are short clips - usually no longer than what you get as part of promotional “teasers” and previews. How many “full” content samples are there?

I never actually “found” a full episode of a given show by just using the YouTube search. If they are there, they get drowned in the sea of short clips, parodies, music videos and fan homages. The only way I was able to locate these is via link sites such as tvlinks and etc..

So I think that the current DMCA system is fully capable of dealing with the real infringing material out there - the few full episodes and movies available. However trying to prevent people from uploading low quality 30 second clips is like tilting at windmills.

By: Official Class Action Lawsuit Site » Blog Archive » Action Class Project - NJ Transit settles lawsuit for $38.9M (The Record)

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:11:43 +0000

[...] A Simple Solution to the Viacom vs. Google LawsuitNamely Viacom, who just two days ago launched a billion dollar lawsuit against Google for unauthorized use of its copyrighted entertainment. Viacom s move seems to me to be a fear-based, knee-jerk reaction. It s indicative of a very … [...]