Boycott Viacom!

Okay, maybe we can get a whole wave of protest started that will wake Viacom up. As reported by Lorraine and JP, YouTube is removing hundreds of thousands of videos from its site, per Viacom's demand that they do so. The story can be found here. I am going to excerpt parts of it in case you don't feel like going to that link. As Lorraine has said, having these old MTV clips on YouTube is generating a lot of interest in bands that no one has thought of in ages. Apparently, YouTube tried to make that argument to Viacom, but they were having none of it:

Viacom, whose properties include MTV, Comedy Central, BET, TV Land and Nickelodeon, said it spent months negotiating with YouTube so that it could be paid for its material to appear on the site. That copyrighted material -- amounting to 1.2 billion streams, according to Viacom -- is uploaded by YouTube users, despite measures the site takes to stop the practice.

"YouTube and Google retain all of the revenue generated from this practice, without extending fair compensation to the people who have expended all of the effort and cost to create it," Viacom said in a statement. YouTube said it takes copyright issues seriously, but it added that media companies gain from having their shows displayed.

"It's unfortunate that Viacom will no longer be able to benefit from YouTube's passionate audience, which has helped to promote many of Viacom's shows," a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement.

And we all know how much interest YouTube generates for the subject of videos show on its site. Case in point:

YouTube has already struck partnerships with CBS, NBC and others to post authorized clips on the site. Last fall, CBS said that in the first month it operated a YouTube channel, it garnered 29.2 million views, and credited the partnership for increasing ratings.


Why is Viacom being so stupid? They think their stuff is more valuable than say, that shown on a broadcast network. Can you say arrogance?

James McQuivey, principal analyst with Forrester Research, said he expects the two sides to return to the bargaining table quickly. By demanding its clips be erased from YouTube, Viacom is making a point that its shows offer more value than YouTube's other partners. Viacom shows appear on paid cable rather than broadcast channels, for instance, and "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are consistently on YouTube's top-watched lists.

On the other hand, YouTube and Google want to come to an agreement quickly because they don't want it to appear that media companies can play hardball and dictate deal terms, McQuivey said.

You go, YouTube! I'm boycotting Viacom.