Viacom verklagte Youtube (auch) wegen von Viacom selbst hochgeladener Videos

Das ist die absurdeste Copyright-Bullshitstory, die mir seit langem begegnet ist. Viacom hat bekanntlich Youtube vor einiger Zeit wegen Verletzung ihres Urheberrechts verklagt, jetzt kam in einer Anhörung raus, dass Viacom insgeheim so viele Videos über Agenturen hochladen lässt und dabei auch gezielt Rechner benutzt, die nicht zu Viacom zurückverfolgt werden können, dass auf der Liste der beanstandeten Videos, die Gegenstand des Prozesses sind, einige dabei sind, die von oder im Auftrag von Viacom selbst hochgeladen wurden. Copyright-Dadaism at its best.

For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately “roughed up” the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko’s to upload clips from computers that couldn’t be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt “very strongly” that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.

Viacom’s efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.

Broadcast Yourself, hier das Posting auf Wireds Dangerous Room: Accusations Fly in Viacom, YouTube Copyright Fight (via Fefe)