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Steve Gilliard, 1964-2007
It is with tremendous sadness that we must convey the news that Steve Gilliard, editor and publisher of The News Blog, passed away June 2, 2007. He was 42.
To those who have come to trust The News Blog and its insightful, brash and unapologetic editorial tone, we have Steve to thank from the bottom of our hearts. Steve helped lead many discussions that mattered to all of us, and he tackled subjects and interest categories where others feared to tread.
Please keep Steve's friends and family in your thoughts and prayers.
Steve meant so much to us.
We will miss him terribly.
Loveandlight: "Viacom sues Google and YouTube for $1G"
On Google's Back
Thanks to Love & Light for this timely coverage of the Viacom-Google circlejerk - THANKS L&L!Link
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Viacom sued Google and its online video
subsidiary YouTube for $1 billion Tuesday, the first big lawsuit
against the online video site and its parent for copyright
infringement.
In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York, Viacom (Charts), owner of MTV and
Comedy Central, said that "almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of
Viacom's programming have been available on YouTube and that these
clips had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times." In addition to
damages, Viacom said it wants an injunction prohibiting Google and
YouTube from further copyright infringement.
Viacom first demanded that YouTube take down videos from shows on
Viacom-owned networks that were posted on the site without Viacom's
consent. Google (Charts) bought YouTube for nearly $1.7 billion last
year.
Viacom is the first major media firm to sue Google and YouTube for
copyright infringement. Other media companies, including GE
(Charts)-owned NBC Universal, CBS (Charts), and Universal Music Group,
have decided to partner with YouTube, the world's most popular online
video site.
Well, we knew this was going to happen sooner or later. I don't know very much about the ins and outs of these things, but as much as I enjoy viewing nostalgic music videos from the 80's on YouTube, I couldn't help but think that they're not going to be able to get away with skirting copyright laws that way forever. I hope some kind of compromise can eventually be worked out somehow some way because it would be a shame if the only thing you could watch on YouTube were amateur home movies and snippets from people's lives. I probably would never have been able to see the UK-made nuclear-war movie *Threads* in its entirety had it not been for YouTube.
- posted by Love and Light