So yet another example of how fucked the current situation with copyright is surfaced on YouTube again this week. As someone who creates original content (even if I’m not making money from it) I get really pissed off when someone steals my content. From my perspective, stealing includes someone taking my work, reproducing it elsewhere and pretending it’s theirs as well as someone trying to make money from it without giving me money.
Both have happened multiple times. Probably far more times than I’m aware of. This is basically because people are fucked. The other end of the spectrum is when people (usually big companies) start claiming the right to exert insane levels of control in the name of copyright including, believe it or not, the RIAA’s belief that you are breaking the law if you copy your own legally purchased music to your hard drive or MP3 player.
And because some people are stupid enough to believe these companies are right no matter what level of control they try to exert here’s the evidence they’re totally fucked. Big companies have been caught out multiple times claiming copyright infringement against people who are totally innocent. They make a (knowingly) false claim of ownership over someone else’s completely original creative work.
This happened to a friend of mine on YouTube this week. And I got ANGRY!
At least there was a happy ending. After a huge outcry, YouTube and Viacom admitted they were wrong and apologised. I still say (a) Viacom should face charges for making a false claim and (b) YouTube should stand up for their fucking partners!
Here’s a little more reading for anyone who’s interested in seeing just how bad this problem is:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/03/viacom-terrorizes-yo.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/08/eff-video-seeks-yout.html
Angry 365 Days a Year 
airport security may be linked to 2012
Dear Mr A,
you should be yelling at he people that post the stolen videos, not the video owners.
They have had their work stolen, in this case by thousands of people. So assuming they want to do something about it, they can either hunt abusers down 1 by 1, wasting their own money and resources, or take the low cost option as taken here.
It should not be up to the person or company who have had their work stolen to track down the culprit and pay vast amounts to recover their property.
Either complain about the people who are doing the stealing and causing the situation, or complain about there being no equivalent to a police force for the agreeved to turn to.
If this argument is based on the principle that it should be OK to post something that isn’t yours as long as you don’t make money (even though neither does the owner when someone else watches it), then take it up with the wider community and see if you can convince enough people to agree with you and get the law changed.
You should never complain about someone or an entity standing up for their legal rights in a fair democracy. Without that tyrannies rise and the individual falls.
@ Matt: Not really sure I can agree with you totally there. What you seem to be saying is that if you’ve got 100 guys on the street and 10 of them are criminals, let’s arrest all of them because it’s too time-consuming and costly to check properly. Only the innocent who stand up for themselves (after much legal headache) get to go free.
So it seems that our solution is to either ensure a better way of catching the real culprits or prevent the crime from even happening?
These people aren’t just posting content that isn’t theirs. They’re claiming credit for it and making money off it. That’s like getting paid while someone else does the work.
I guess people don’t like their work being given around for free either?
Coming from the land of Odex (bleagh), I do agree some companies go overboard trying to protect their content (i.e. through illegal means). In this case, I don’t really know who has the right to the copyright. If writers in America claim ownership over their work, shouldn’t the animators or original manga artist be getting a say in the distribution of anime? I imagine that they grew the apples and Odex/Viacom/whoever bought it wholesale, selling them to grocery stores (tv stations).
…Yeah I can sound a little weird at 3am. Sorry.