Viacom, YouTube and You

The New York Times: Viacom Tells YouTube: Hands Off: “In a sign of the growing tension between old-line media and the new Internet behemoths, Viacom, the parent company of MTV and Comedy Central, demanded yesterday that YouTube, the video-sharing Web site owned by Google, remove more than 100,000 clips of its programming”
While there are certainly many infringing clips on the site, some fraction of the takedown notices sent to Google claim infringement in non-infringing content– such as a home video (filmed at Redbones in lovely Davis Square.) John Palfrey asks, How Many Jim Moores Are Out There? Viacom’s Cease and Desist Letters … for Home Videos? “Stipulate that Jim Moore holds all rights in his video, and Viacom none. And stipulate further that Jim Moore is far from alone. One presumes that Viacom’s argument is that they did not issue these misrepresentative notices ‘knowingly.’ I wonder how many home videos have to have been caught up — and taken down — in this sweep before one could say that it was “knowing” on the part of Viacom?”
Previously: Copyright Fraud and Misuse, A series of tubes: the song: the story
Also, Reel Pop: A Brief Guide to Online Video Lawsuits: “Following the recent news that Fox subpoenaed YouTube to identify a user uploading copyrighted content, I thought it’d be useful to collate info about litigation against the major video-sharing sites. Below, details on lawsuits and subpoenas against Veoh, Bolt, Grouper, YouTube, Google Video and MySpace.”