or, a (Christopher) Knight’s tale.
- Christopher Knight made three videos as part of his campaign for Rockingham County Board of Education, and posted them on YouTube.
- VH1 used one of the videos in its show Web Junk 2.0.
- Christopher posted the segment from VH1 on YouTube.
- Viacom, which owns VH1, contacted YouTube demanding that the segment be removed, on the grounds that it infringed copyright.
- YouTube complied, and informed Christopher.
Here’s Christopher’s summary.
So Viacom took a video that I had made for non-profit purposes and without trying to acquire my permission, used it in a for-profit broadcast. And then when I made a YouTube clip of what they did with my material, they charged me with copyright infringement and had YouTube pull the clip.
Folks, this is, as we say down here in the south, “bass-ackwards”.
I hesitate to post about things that have already drawn many posts and links, but sometimes I just have to.