Comedy Central will today launch a dedicated website for “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” that is designed to offer fans free video clips from the show. Although it would be easy to mock Comedy Central’s I can’t believe 2004 called launch of free Daily Show clips, the offering is slightly better than it first appears; the site includes 13,000 clips representing every… → Read More
A new joint copyright alliance that includes CBS Corp., Dailymotion, Microsoft, NBC Universal, News Corp.’s Fox and MySpace units, Viacom Inc. and Walt Disney Co is due to launch Friday, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Google is noted as not being a member of the grouping, but in discussions to join. The group will address copyright-related issues including video piracy… → Read More
With the debate over copyright between YouTube and Viacom heating up, the online video site is hoping that some of its biggest stars will help them out in the debate over fair use of TV clips. YouTube intends to question Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on what they think about Viacom’s decision to sue YouTube. The company needs 30 depositions from people to keep the legal battle going… → Read More
Google responded to Viacom’s $1 billion lawsuit over alleged YouTube copyright infringement today. Their answer: Let’s fight this out, in front of a jury. We earlier predicted that there was no way Google would agree to a settlement with Viacom that involved any damages, and assumed that they would work to sign a licensing deal instead and convince Viacom to simply settle the lawsuit. → Read More
Nobody likes piracy. Well, we do, sure, but content providers aren’t as cool with it as we are. Enter PodZinger, a start-up whose main widget—true video search—could finally save YouTube and the like from constantly being sued by the Viacoms of the world for copyright violations. With its video search technology, users are able to pinpoint, with a 70 percent accuracy so far… → Read More
Viacom hasn’t been gentle with Google this year. In February they slammed Google/YouTube with a massive DMCA take down demand (and an equally massive press outreach). A month later they sued Google for a billion dollars. Between those two events they signed a content deal with Joost, a YouTube competitor in the professional content space. All of this seems to stem from the fact that Google… → Read More
Viacom announced today that MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures have made significant changes to each of their mobile portfolios and they’ll soon be taking over the world. OK, I made the latter of that up, but they are trying to gain a bigger presence in the mobile content market. MTV Networks already provides Sprint with VOD (video on demand) content that includes MTV, Country… → Read More
After Viacom sued YouTube/Google for 1 billion bucks, we all thought Google would be really screwed. Well apparently the tech-giant isn’t worrying much, saying that the DMCA justifies its actions and it’s not liable for jack. Sez Alexander Macgillivray from Google’s legal mumbojumbo department: “Here there is a law which is specifically designed to give Web hosts such as… → Read More
When Viacom announced that it was going to sue YouTube and Google, plenty of folks on the Web did that whole, “you’ll never beat YouTube, YouTube forever, etc” schtick. Turns out these silly geese may have a point. → Read More
Viacom, owner of fine media outlets like MTV and Comedy Central, will sue Google and YouTube for $1 billion for failing to prevent “massive intentional copyright infringement.” (Can Google counter-sue Viacom for producing base drivel?) Viacom isn’t happy that Google hasn’t taken “proactive” steps to prevent the unauthorized use of its content. Never mind that it… → Read More
You may remember that last week, Viacom demanded that YouTube pull 100,000 copyrighted videos own that belonged to the media giant. Turns out, it wasn’t just because some guy uploaded an old Hall & Oates video, rather Viacom has decided to go with Joost instead. That’s right: Joost users will be able to enjoy programming from networks like MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon… → Read More
Two weeks after Viacom ordered Google to take down more than 100,000 allegedly copyrighted videos from YouTube, the media giant is about to sign a content deal with Joost, the Wall Street Journal is reporting tonight. Joost, the P2P online television service soon to launch from the founders of Skype, is purportedly aimed to challenge traditional TV networks more than it is YouTube. User… → Read More
If you’re trying to find that old Jermaine Stewart video of “We don’t have to take our clothes off (to have a good time)” from 1986 on YouTube, you better do it soon. Music videos from MTV, BET and other clips could soon disappear from the video-sharing site. Viacom, parent company of MTV, failed to reach an agreement with Google’s YouTube. The entertainment giant is now ordering YouTube… → Read More
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