Loading ...WebProNews has a bizarre story to tell you. A man is accused of copyright infringement for posting a YouTube video that Viacom International, Inc. made by infringing upon his very own copyright. The North Carolina native, Chris Knight, told WebProNews he is shocked at this turn of events. We also spoke with Attorney Clarke Walton to get the legal side of the story. Watch the full story including exclusive interviews with both Knight and Walton, only on WebProNews.
While Viacom could certainly claim fair use based on their commentary, other things have to be considered too, such as whether they were using it commercially (they were), whether their use could have impeded on the copyright holder’s ability to market the video on their own (there could possibly be a case made for that), and a slew of other factors.
At the same time, while it would have been smart to have commentary added to the VH1 clip as well, unless I misunderstood something, his video was actually just a clip; much of whose content was his own… whether just the added audio from a small portion of a program, not used commercially, and in a way not likely to stop them from effectively marketing the full video would constitute a lack of fair use is a more complex issue.
If it does end up in court, at least it will make for an interesting read later, no matter how it turned out.
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I still am confused about the rights – it was his property and vh1 should have not used it altered it [ added to it] without his permission. Everyone cries foul when the little guy uses the big companies content [ clips of whole content] but the big guy can get away with it???
…and does LFL have any copyright issue here since it is their trademarked material that was used in the creation of Chris Knight’s ads. Given that Chris used parody probably not, but it will be interesting to see how this shakes out.
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This is ridiculous. I’m so tired of THE MAN trying to keep us down. To hell with the man! To hell with VH1!
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