EFF drops Viacom suit over Colbert parody on YouTube
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has dropped a lawsuit that it filed against Viacom on behalf of a group that posted a parody video of The Colbert Report on YouTube, which Viacom demanded be removed citing U.S. copyright law.
The lawsuit, filed in March in federal court in San Francisco, accused Viacom of misusing the law and infringing on the free-speech rights of the makers of the video--activist group MoveOn.org Civic Action and Brave New Films. When contacted by CNET News.com last month, Viacom claimed that it had not asked YouTube to remove the video. However, Viacom later conceded to the EFF that it was the source of the takedown order and admitted that it erred in asking that it be removed.
Viacom also has agreed to set up a Web site and e-mail hotline that people can use if they want to contest a Viacom takedown order. Viacom has promised that it will review any complaint within one business day and that it will have the video re-posted if the takedown request was made in error.
The tongue-in-cheek clip that was removed and reposted, "Stop the Falsiness," uses snippets from The Colbert Report, a program on Viacom's Comedy Central network, for parody. That approach is permissible under the "fair use" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor.
Then when Colbert got a chance to serve it up to Bush at the White House Correspondence meet & great and the WEAK-KNEE'D COWARDS OF THE MEDIA SAT THERE IN THE SAME WAY THAT THE REPUBLICANS DO>>>>ABSOLUTELY CLUELESS! It took some "intellectuals" that think with their "Brain" not their guts to explain why it was so funny.
This is a joke upon a joke. This is a mythical suite with a mythical issue...