Viacom May Be Right, But They're Stupid

The folks at Viacom must be stupid.

Get this. (Detail here.)

Chris Knight, an independent filmmaker in North Carolina, makes a video of himself. He slaps it up on YouTube. Viacom likes it, so they grab it, lay some humorous commentary over it and air it on their show "WebJunk 2.0". Knight, flattered, captures the video on his DVR, converts its format and posts it back on YouTube.

Viacom sues Knight for copyright infringement.

WTF?

As it happens, given the way the government completely fails to understand the notion of "intellectual property", Viacom is legally right here. Because they added something to his clip, their work is not derivative, it's fair use. but given that all Knight did was post the unedited, uncommented Viacom piece, he's in violation of the law.

That's moral garbage.

In the world of tort law, there is a notion of contributory negligence. If you and I have an accident, a jury can decide it was 20% my fault and 80% yours and award damages accordingly. Copyright law needs the same sort of new thinking in an era of easily editable digital media. Without Knight's original work, Viacom has no product on which it can claim a right that Knight can infringe. Call it even. Shake hands. Go home.

Media Conglomerates Suck!