Filed under: Internet, Video, News, Web services
Viacom becomes DMCA bully
Viacom's massive YouTube takedown notice last week sent chills through the spine of the online video world. It also caught hundreds, if not thousands of non-infringing videos in its wake. ZDNet's Steve O'Hear writes, "[Viacom] simply ran a crude keyword search against any Viacom trademarks or brands - which has resulted in, potentially, thousands of User-Generated videos being caught in the crossfire."Cory Doctorow takes Viacom's legal team to task, "The idea that they have members of the bar -- officers of the court! -- signing affidavits swearing that they have a good-faith belief that these clips infringe their copyrights is disgraceful. Practicing law is a privilege, not a right. The law societies should be holding these attorneys to account for this kind of behaviour."
He's right, law societies should be holding attorneys to a higher standard than this example demonstrates but, what about us, the Viacom consuming public? We should be outraged and vocal about the fact that takedown notices such as this go too far, and even more vocal about our displeasure with the law which makes fiascoes like this possible, The Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That one piece of legislation puts YouTube in jeporady if it fails to comply immediately. It's a standard which allows Viacom to indiscriminately terrorize the YouTube community, while forcing the users of YouTube to deal with the aftermath. Where the DMCA is concerned, you the user are guilty until proven innocent.
Get a WordPress.com Blog
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
