The current legal battle between Viacom and Google/YouTube is going to have significant ramifications beyond today’s headlines. It’s getting surprisingly little play amongst much of the social media digerati, but it’s something we all need to be aware of.
The lawsuit and the proceedings around it are truly a sign of the times. It’s a direct outgrowth of what we’ve been emerging via the internet over the past several years. Sites such as YouTube have essentially become free communicative vehicles to not only view, but share and alter video productions of all types. The concept of “share” is important because most of us use it. But in reality, it is a nice way of saying “distribute”. And from distribute comes distribution - a fundamental with tremendous legal ramifications.
Alter is a tough one too. The “mash-ups” that many in social media and digital marketing talk of enthusiastically can be as problematic. As, I guess, it should be. At least in some cases. An artist creates an original piece of work. Then distributes it, usually netting some sort of financial gain. Others take it, and now because of new tools can alter it and redistribute it. Many times this new process leads to lost potential revenue for the original artist. Read more…
2 Comments » Posted on July 11th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn
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