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.
photo by lindsay beyerstein
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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 LightLabels: google, lawyers, viacom
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