Google attack on Viacom (following Viacom vs. YouTube lawsuit)

Google talks directly to everyone via Youtube blog to stop Viacom lawsuit against Youtube (owned by Google).

We ask the judge to rule that the safe harbors in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”) protect YouTube from the plaintiffs’ claims.

And then after some blabla, the final attack:

For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately “roughed up” the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko’s to upload clips from computers that couldn’t be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt “very strongly” that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.

Viacom’s efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.

International politics 2.0 and … Obama is a genious!

Obama left a message on YouTube for all Iranians!
Points to note:
* emphasis on directly (“speak directly to the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran”)!
* message posted on Youtube!
Now imagine the President of Iran, Ahmadinej?d, leaving a directly video message to all Americans on the web!!! We live in interesting time, don’t we?

Download .mp3, .mp4, or .mp4 with Persian subtitles  |  Read the transcript in Persian

In particular, I would like to speak directly to the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nowruz is just one part of your great and celebrated culture. Over many centuries your art, your music, literature and innovation have made the world a better and more beautiful place.

So in this season of new beginnings I would like to speak clearly to Iran’s leaders. We have serious differences that have grown over time. My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us, and to pursuing constructive ties among the United States, Iran and the international community. This process will not be advanced by threats. We seek instead engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.

There are those who insist that we be defined by our differences. But let us remember the words that were written by the poet Saadi, so many years ago: “The children of Adam are limbs to each other, having been created of one essence.”

Following the complete transcript:

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An anthropological introduction to YouTube


By Mike Welsh, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University
Watch it, it’s worth your time!

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