alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

March 19, 2007

Department of Lightly Stolen

by AltHippo @ 3:30 pm. Filed under technology

From the comments to this MyDD post comes a link to a very helpful resource. It’s a comic book from Duke Law School discussing copyright and fair use.

That said, the premise of the original post was questionable:

Progressive Democrats don’t like unfair and illegal strangeholds on free speech under the guise of copyright. This Larry Lessig Op-Ed on Viacom suing youtube is worth reading. Viacom’s stranglehold on the political and legal process has made it impossible to get clear rules on copyright.

The Viacom/YouTube lawsuit is a very poor example of big business putting a stranglehold on internet free speech. YouTube, recognizing Viacom’s rights to the videos, had agreed to take down popular clips from Comedy Central, and was negotiating with Viacom for a licensing deal. YouTube didn’t want to pay Viacom’s price, and was lax about taking down copyrighted videos. Since then, Viacom has signed a licensing deal with Joost, for all you Comedy Central fans.

Here’s what I find so frustrating about YouTube: they have a parasitic relationship to content. The premise of the company was to make it as easy as possible for their users to steal the work of others, meanwhile, the YouTube founders sell advertising. That’s the YouTube formula.

I’ll also point out that the Duke Law comic book on copyright law is careful to distinguish between Fair Use, and theft. One of the requirements is that the use of the copyrighted material be “transformative.” A new work of creativity emerges. As a parody, commentary, critque, etc. The point is, something new needs to be created. Copying clips from the Daily Show or Colbert Report is not creating anything new. Unless we’ve reached the sad point where setting the VCR to REC at 11:00pm is considered an artistic act.

Here’s what I’m saying: if YouTube stays in business it needs to start paying content creators cash money. Either that, or it becomes a site that distributes political ads (and other forms of advertising) without compensation. Along with the clips of people on fire riding a bicycle that YouTube users seem to crave.

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2 Responses to “Department of Lightly Stolen”

  1. eRobin Says:
    March 20th, 2007 at 5:31 pm

    “Unless we’ve reached the sad point where setting the VCR to REC at 11:00pm is considered an artistic act.”

    Woo hoo! I’m Monet!

  2. AltHippo Says:
    March 21st, 2007 at 2:11 pm

    Wait, a minute, I wanted to be Monet. Or was it Manet? I can never remember.

    On second thought I’ll be Salvador Dali. My current masterpiece: “Time (for the Colbert Report) Encomium.”

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