New View On Viacom's Copyright Fight
"The Daily Show" on Comedy Central recently took a moment to explain its parent company's $1 billion lawsuit against Google and YouTube video-sharing subsidiary. Viacom alleges that YouTube posted roughly 160,000 unauthorized clips of content it owns.
In a several-minute segment titled "Professional Important News," comedian and "correspondent" Demetri Martin described the legal battle in layman's terms (sort of). He said: "We're talking about whether it's illegal to watch me discussing the legality of you watching me on 'The Daily Show' if you're watching it on YouTube."
From Martin's perspective, media giant Viacom is the underdog in the fight. The plaintiff is only worth about $25 billion whereas Google, he said, is worth "$14 trillion" and "they got their own verb!"
"The real loser in this situation is me," he joked. "Because the only thing I like better than watching a TV show is watching it smaller and blurrier." He then suggested that kids avoid copyright suits by creating their own versions of "The Daily Show."
The clip is available on Comedy Central's Web site (but only until April 22, when the video expires).
Update: A Viacom staffer told us he didn’t know 'The Daily Show' "news" report was coming, but folks at headquarters were buzzing about it the day after it aired and "thought it was pretty damn funny."
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