IRT Magazine

So Viacom is suing YouTube for millions and millions of dollars. I’m sure this move will be analyzed all over the mainstream press and the blogosphere with detailed breakdowns for what it means to the business world and the cultural landscape in the internet age. My opinion as a pop culture junkie is that Viacom is shooting themselves in the foot. I can understand them not wanting clips from popular shows available on DVD (South Park, Chapelle’s Show, Etc) to be copied and distributed. Heaven forbid “I’m Rick James Bitch” gets posted on some teenager’s Myspace page. But what about shows that are not available on DVD? YouTube was the only place to still find clips form show’s like The State (MTV’s short lived sketch comedy show staring a lot of the Reno 911 cast) and Sifl and Olly (A sock puppet show created by Pick Of Destiny director Liam Lynch). What’s the worse thing that could happen? These shows get a second life thanks to people discovering them on YouTube. Viacom finally allows these shows to be released on DVD and the company makes a profit. That’s capitalism at its most effective folks. So is Viacom trying to prove it’s might by swinging its big legal dick around like a pinwheel or are they really scared about copyright infringement? In reality they are probably ignorant of just how to use YouTube’s ease of access to information to their advantage. This is very similar to how the record industry went batshit when Napster first hit the stage. Granted the, bugs have not all been worked out and illegal downloading is cutting into corporate bottom lines, but the technology is improving and legal downloading is increasing in large percents every year. In the end Napster was castrated and became a shitty legal download site. Hopefully YouTube will stick to its guns and keeps its balls while the dust settles and one day will be able to watch Sifl and Olly in peace. - Brad Filikcy

Last Modified : March 13th, 2007
Filed under : news
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