MoveOn.org sues parent company of Comedy Central

[LiberalHeart]

http://newsgrinder.blogspot.com/2007/03/moveonorg-sues-parent-company-of-comedy.html

Looks like the folks at Comedy Central won't be laughing about this. Didn't Al Franken pretty much establish the protections for parody when he was sued by Bill O'Reilly?

[EFerrari]

1. Satire is protected. MoveOn misses again. n/t

[Tunkamerica]

2. read the article again

it was moveon who made the parody. viacom asked youtube to remove it, probably using a keyword search without actually watching the video, and moveon.org sued viacom for getting youtube to remove the video.

[EFerrari]

8. That's what I get for trying to read faster than my brain actually

processes information. Sorry.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

4. sfexpat, I like you and all, but you should read the article...

:)

[EFerrari]

7. Ack, you're right. I completely misread this. Sorry! n/t

[evlbstrd]

3. The way I read it

they're suing Viacom for having it pulled from Youtube.

[LiberalHeart]

5. Yes, that's correct ... but what I wonder is if this kind of lawsuit...

...has damages attached, or if the remedy is simply to put the video back on YouTube.

If MoveOn.org is successful, and I would guess they will be, could this be a way to get other clips onto YouTube legally? Dress them up in a parody? From my point of view, that'd be a good thing.

[rinsd]

6. So fair use mavens is it ok (legally) to use clips of the show in a larger context?

I understand just clips of the show wouldn't fly but what about a mash-up or something?

[McCamy Taylor]

9. Bet you a nickel Viacom is starting a YouTube rival and is yanking its material plus suing YouTube

as this MSNBC article describes in order to hurt YouTube's business, not because it gives a damn what MoveOn.org did with The Colbert Report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17593962/

Everyone who wants a piece of the YouTube action is attacking them right now. The easiest way to do it is to demand that they take all "your company's product" off their site. Hand out lists of stuff that does not even include your material, like something with "Blues Brothers" in the title that does not have anything to do with Belushi and Akyroyd as part of a list of 100,000 items, keep your fingers crossed that YouTube deletes somebody's baby, and then watch the disgruntled customers flock to the brand spanking new video posting website that your media company plans to introduce next month.

Everyone should sue the media vultures who are resorting to this kind of tactic. YouTube is the best thing this democracy has going for it. It is how a lot of people get free, unrestricted access to the news. If Viacom were to become the "new" YouTube, they would censor it the way they censored Ed Bradley and Dan Rather (right off the air) in order to keep the FCC from enforcing the federal media ownership rules that they have been in violation of since 2000.

[loudsue]

10. And that is PRECISELY why we have to urge the Dem congress to

reinstate the Fairness Doctrine while they have a chance. It HAS to happen for a working Democracy.

If you don't have free press, and you don't have your votes counted accurately, you DON'T HAVE DEMOCRACY. And it is HIGH TIME that the Dems made this happen.

The Dems in congress aren't getting the truth to the American people about WHY they are issuing subpoenas to the white house, because the frikkin' media is all owned & controlled by the same goons that control the republican party.

If the Dems don't realize that they need the American PEOPLE on board for what they're trying to do, it will come back to bite them in the next elections .... elections which will again be gerrymandered by republicans, if we don't outvote Rove's vote switching software. The press will continue to call it sour grapes politics, and partisan witch hunts. Dems need to take their case to AMERICANS, as well as the courts.

If the press was restored to honesty, maybe even the voting machine issue would be publicized enough before 2008 that we could prevent Rove from messing with it.

The press is the KEY to a lot of what we have to accomplish.


:kick::kick::kick:

[LiberalHeart]

11. Very good thinking, there. I agree, now that you point it out.

[NobleCynic]

13. Actually that is only sort of what viacom is doing

I think it is offerring its products for free on "Motherload" or something like that. But they yanked their stuff off youtube so they could distribute it themselves.

I don't think they're making an outright competitor to youtube, to my knowledge they're only using motherload to show comedy central clips.

[jberryhill]

12. It's up to YouTube what is hosted on their site

YouTube doesn't have to host any video it doesn't want to post. Someone in the thread suggested that a remedy would be to order YouTube to put the video back on. YouTube is not a party to this action. Obviously, in the process of taking down other Viacom material, this video got swept up in the search.

Why doesn't Moveon.org simply host the video on their own website? They probably have a fine parody or comment defense, but YouTube doesn't have to agree with them or risk liability on someone else's defense theory.

Using donated funds to go after a company which, after all, is running great stuff like Colbert and Daily Show seems counterproductive. The only result is to transfer donated funds into lawyers pockets.