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Viacom recently decided to take hypocrisy to untold new levels when it decided to file a DMCA takedown notice against a YouTube user after using the users clip without permission. Periodically the Viacom owned VH1 runs a show where it pulls in top clips from YouTube, without, mind you, asking the users permission or even notifying them that it is using the clip.
Of course Viacom can claim fair use for the clips since they add commentary and use the clips to illustrate it. The irony is Viacom almost always tries to deny fair use rights when others do the exact same thing to Viacom content.
Typically most people are happy for the exposure the VH1 show provides. One user was so happy he taped the show and uploaded it to YouTube, prompting Viacom to file a cease and desist letter to YouTube claiming that they own the clip.
The clip in question is from user Christopher Knight and is part of Knight's campaign for the Board of Education.
The question is, was Knights posting of the video also fair use? Knight posted the video to YouTube and then [embedded it on his blog with commentary][2], arguably also qualifying as fair use. The point of contention will likely end up being that the YouTube posting does not include commentary.
This is hardly the first time copyright "defenders" have quite possibly violated copyrights themselves. An RIAA website used plagiarized code, more recently a site defending against the open access movement was[discovered using images from the Getty Database with the watermarks still on them][1], and the list goes on.
Hopefully the Electronic Frontier Foundation will take up the cause at some point and perhaps this can help Google who's currently embroiled in a nasty $2 billion lawsuit with Viacom.
For the curious, Political Soup is [hosting the banned VH1 clip][3].
[1]: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/27/2228203
[2]: http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/2007/07/clip-of-vh1s-web-junk-20-featuring-my.html
[3]: http://politicalsoup.tv/rockinghamradio/chrisknightvsviacom.wmv
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