Wednesday, February 14, 2007

US: Nickelodeon owner Viacom demands YouTube remove clips

From AsiaMedia:

US: MTV owner demands YouTube remove clips
Video-sharing forum comes under scrutiny as more companies bring on suit over copyright violation

South China Morning Post
Sunday, February 4, 2007

Media company Viacom, which owns the cable networks MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and the Paramount Pictures movie studio, asked internet site YouTube to remove more than 100,000 unauthorised clips from its hugely popular video-sharing site.

Viacom said that after several months of talks with YouTube and its corporate parent, the online search leader Google, "it has become clear that YouTube is unwilling to come to a fair market agreement that would make Viacom content available to YouTube users". Viacom said that YouTube and Google had failed to deliver on several "filtering tools" to control unauthorised video from appearing.

YouTube is generally immune from liability as long as it responds to takedown requests such as these, which YouTube often does. Less clear legally is what happens when another user posts the same video, something commonly done on the free video-sharing site.

YouTube said it would comply with the request from Viacom and said that it co-operates "with all copyright holders to identify and promptly remove infringing content as soon as we are officially notified".

The company also said it was "unfortunate that Viacom will no longer be able to benefit from YouTube's passionate audience which has helped to promote many of Viacom's shows".

In November, YouTube agreed to delete nearly 30,000 files after the Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers complained of copyright infringement.

Some media companies, such as CBS and General Electric's NBC Universal have made deals to allow YouTube to use video clips from their programming.

Universal Music Group, a division of French telecommunications giant Vivendi, had threatened to sue YouTube for copyright infringement, saying it was a hub for pirated music videos, but later reached a licensing deal with it last year.

Viacom's recent decision also affects Classic Nickelodeon video clips on YouTube, as well as the Purple & Brown videos Nickelodeon UK put on YouTube.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Have your say by leaving a comment below! NickALive! welcomes friendly and respectful comments. Please familiarize with the blog's Comment Policy before commenting. All new comments are moderated and won't appear straight away.