I frequently get worked up by the way big companies take an extreme position with regards to copyright. As a creator of original work (in my own modest way) I’m not a fan of people making money from the work of others without fair recompense to the originator. But some of the practices of media companies are simply fucked up.
My personal pet hate is being subjected to anti piracy messages when I’m at the cinema or watching a DVD I’ve bought. Listen up you fucking geniuses: if I’ve paid money to watch the fucking movie I’m not a fucking pirate so your fucking anti piracy message is a waste of fucking time and nothing short of insulting. JUST FUCKING STOP IT, OK?
And I’ve never understood the way they go after their most loyal fans. You literally can’t buy the sort of rabid fandom that makes people want to promote music, TV shows and movies to all and sundry. Yet when people make fan tributes the copyright lawyers go after them like a pack of hyenas.
Their biggest target these days is YouTube. Partly because there actually is a lot of infringing material on there. Partly because it’s owned by Google and Google’s billions make them a prime target for lawsuits. And honestly, I think a big part of it is jealousy. None of these fucked-up companies has a clue on how to launch a successful online video site. It’s way easier to sue a success story than succeed on your own.
By now the apologist are gearing up to leave comments saying how the media companies are in the right, they’re protecting their property, people are stealing their content online. I don’t fucking care. You know why? These companies are liars, hypocrites and thieves.
The poster child for aggressive legal action in the name of copyright protection these days is Viacom. They have a billion dollar lawsuit pending against YouTube (which they’re going to lose – big time.) They go after people at the drop of a hat. And it doesn’t seem to matter to them whether they’re right or wrong.
You’d think if they were going to go after other people so aggressively for copyright infringement, they’d make sure they were squeaky clean themselves, right? Wrong. VH1, which is a Viaom channel, run a show called “Web Junk”. In this show, they post online videos with what they think is witty commentary.
But they don’t get permission to run these videos which is textbook copyright infringement (you don’t have to assert copyright – simply creating something gives you copyright over it). Case in point is Christopher Knight. He details in a post on his blog how VH1 used a video he’d created on their Web Junk show. They didn’t even ask permission, let alone pay for the right to use it.
Turns out Knight didn’t mind. He was actually flattered that they thought his work was worth showing. He put a video up on YouTube showing his material being used on Vh1. And Viacom had the audacity to issue a takedown notice to YouTube. For copyright infringement. These people deserve to have a rabid chipmunk rectally inserted. In fact, these sick bastards probably already do that sort of thing for fun.
This bullshit has got to stop.
Angry 365 Days a Year 
Ugh. I already hated Viacom before reading this post (though, I do love The Colbert Report) and I only hate Viacom more now.
> My personal pet hate is being subjected to anti piracy messages when I’m at the cinema or watching a DVD I’ve bought.
How true… It was always kind of ironic how all those copyright protection tricks only effect was harassing legal users. Pirats will just cut that stuff off (which I often want to do myself, but never did, m’kay…)
well considering the heat the big company bitches they call lawyers give to someone that broke their Copyrights. then five seconds later they turn around and do the same and even without giving anykind of credit to the author wich most youtubers do when they post content that has their own and some copyrighted materials. if they stole any of mine when i get to posting more vids i wouldnt hesitate to tell those lawyers where they can shove it.
Excellent points. The fucktards behind Viacom are trying to ruin the only thing I care about, pop culture. And those stupidass piracy messages are on all my pirated DVDs, so what good are they?
katie: the thing is, a few Viacom big names (Colbert, Stewart, South Park) have made it clear they don’t agree with Viacom’s stance and Google has called them as witnesses. Should be interesting.
Vlad: if I’m at the cinema with my kids we all start making pirate sounds. Soon the whole audience is going “Arrrrrrr!”
shadow: The way they lie undermines everything they do but I guess they’re lawyers, that’s what lawyers do,
writer: they’re just scared and desperate. And stupid. And greedy.
What anti-piracy messages? I haven’t see those. Oh, wait, it’s probably cause pirated copies don’t… Never mind.
Mr A. I can truly imagine you running amok at a cinema, making piratical noises… It’s so you!
Big stink know about companies using GPL licensed code without proper attribution and in come cases in outright violation of the GPL.
It’s okay, though, because Richard Stallman is just a Marxist hippie, so his copyrights don’t count.
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DOA: You said too much 😉
gruntski: I’m waiting to get thrown out of a cinema for doing it.
Bobby: Another excellent example.
I hate those.
The whole Viacom thing is pretty damn bizarre, but logical in the way that companies work. Christopher should sue their asses, but then suing costs money. I find is discouraging how Justice is supposed to blind but is easily bought by those with deep pockets, while the common man is stuck out in the cold.
I found a cool quote “Then the old Rome, like the beggar on horseback, presumed on the favor of the gods, and said, “Lo! there is neither riches nor greatness in our littleness: the road to riches and greatness is through robbery of the poor and slaughter of the weak.” So they robbed their own poor until they became great masters of that art, and knew by what laws it could be made to appear seemly and honest. And when they had squeezed their own poor dry, they robbed the poor of other lands, and added those lands to Rome until there came a new Rome, rich and huge. And I, Ra, laughed; for the minds of the Romans remained the same size whilst their dominion spread over the earth”
It’ s sadly a long tradition of screwery. There are countless american folk songs that we all own in my opinion that have been copyrighted by the first jag-hole to get to the library of congress. and now we get sued by whoever the hell bought it from them. did you know that time warner owns happy birthday?
Five years later, copyright tyranny is still limping onward but the people are “pirating” more than ever. There’s a point where that uneasy tie destabilizes and one wins over the other yet no corporation I can think of is honestly mighty enough to stop the will of a billion independent people across the world. We need a new means to compensate the online contributor for his or her work. Maybe we should turn Youtube votes into real money. Just a thought.
Rest in piece, intellectual property law.