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Man defeats Viacom in DMCA takedown dispute

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 14 Sep 2007 7:07 User comments (3)

Man defeats Viacom in DMCA takedown dispute Viacom has backed down from a DMCA takedown notice over a video posted to YouTube by a school board candidate in North Carolina after he filed a counter-complaint stating that the content posted to the viral video site belonged to hiim.
Last year Christopher Knight ran a television ad promoting his candidacy for local office. After seeing a big reaction to the ad on television, he decided to post it to YouTube. That's where the story gets interesting. After the video showed up on YouTube it also appeared on a television show called Web 2.0 on Viacom owned VH-1.

Despite not being asked for permission to air the clip, Knight was excited about the exposure, saying "I'm delighted that as a proud son of Rockingham County, I got worldwide exposure for this."

Unfortunately, when he returned the favor and posted his video's Web 2.0 appearance on YouTube, Viacom wasn't nearly as flattered. That's when they they sent YouTube a DMCA takedown notice for a video of their show arguably pirating Knight's work. While there was a small amount of video clearly owned by Viacom, most of it was Knight's own video, which Web 2.0 used without getting authorization first.



After Knight filed a successful counter complaint with YouTube to get the video restored, Viacom has decided to drop the issue for obvious reasons.

Despite the fair resolution to this particular situation, it's clearly an example for those who assume media companies are being honest when they make claims about rampant piracy. If their own lawyers can't figure out obvious cases like this one, how can we trust their claims about other fair use issues, most of which are highly debatable without a judge's decision.

Apparently they only believe in fair use when it comes to other people's intellectual property.

Sources:
The Register original story
The Register followup

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3 user comments

115.9.2007 13:11

That is the weirdest turn of event i have ever seen.

221.9.2007 05:29
RNR1995
Inactive

Typical corporation, I can steal from you, but if you fairly use what I have then that is wrong!

321.9.2007 08:16
emugamer
Inactive

Originally posted by RNR1995:
Typical corporation, I can steal from you, but if you fairly use what I have then that is wrong!
Yeah, same thoughts regarding the labels who use piracy statistics to run their business model. Another classic example of bitting the hand that feeds you.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 21 Sep 2007 @ 8:17

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