A couple of days ago, Viacom filed suit against YouTube, because there were a lot of clips on YouTube of which Viacom claimed copyright. So now YouTube has gone in and deleted all those clips, including the cool one of Sherine Abetrayne singing Breakaway that I had here.
And it's just pathetic. With that stuff on YouTube, everyone could enjoy it for free. Now - no one will ever be able to see the material. I seriously doubt that Viacom was concerned about royalties not going to any of the performers - I'm sure they don't pay royalties themselves - because they keep the material locked in a vault where no one can see it. But YouTube was showing it and possibly earning a few cents from people clicking on ads on the site, and that had to be stopped!
As a writer myself, I know all about copyright - I don't want anyone taking my material and claiming it for their own. But when it comes to showing 5 minute clips of TV shows or videos - where's the harm? All it does is engender interest in that show or video...which would cause people to go out and buy the whole thing if they were even available - but that's the whole thing, this stuff is not commercially available and Viacom has no intention of making it commercially available. But they've got lawyers who have to earn their two-hundred-dollar-an-hour retainers.
So, I'm not too happy right now...
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