VEVO CEO tries to explain their hypocritical act of piracy at Sundance

http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/10/vevo-ceo-tries-to-explain-their-hypocritical-act-of-piracy-at-sundance/

by msencenb • 14 years ago

100 18 14 years ago

wmeredith• 14 years ago

What a load of crap. Their excuse rings completely hollow to me.

I mean, it's pretty weak in and of itself. Then I consider the company VEVO keeps. That is, hugely powerful record labels that have bribed, coerced, and abused the American legal/political system to keep themselves between musicians and patrons for so many years. I don't know that a better excuse would have even helped. These companies, and their ilk, have lost all credibility with me as a consumer and American Citizen.

I view them as scumbags of the highest order. I am not alone and we're just waiting for them to screw up so we can take joy in the next step of their long, slow demise.

And screw up they did. Big time. The NFL may be the only people more psychopathic than Hollywood about their copyright. They actually say during their broadcast that you can't talk about the game without their permission, when you hear it sounds like something out The Onion or Brazil. I'd love to see VEVO get slapped with a fat lawsuit from the NFL. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that...

fluidcruft• 14 years ago

If you follow to yesterday's article about this you'll see at the bottom:

Update, 2/10:: ESPN says it will not be pursuing legal action. A spokesperson gave us the following statement:

“We’re disappointed the exhibitor took this route, especially at a festival for an industry whose jobs are most at risk if we are not able to curtail stolen content.”

http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/09/music-labels-joint-venture-...

PerryCox• 14 years ago

ESPN is not the NFL. They may be off the hook with ESPN but I expect the NFL might be a little more upset.

waterlesscloud• 14 years ago

So VEVO's position is that this is a valid defense?

"I didn't secure my computer and others had access to it."

Interesting.

savramescu• 14 years ago

"I didn't secure my Wi-Fi and other had access to it." - sounds pretty familiar to me.

Joakal• 14 years ago

"Somebody used our ip addresses." - RIAA's argument when their computers were linked to piracy.

uptown• 14 years ago

If they're willing to establish this as a precedent, sounds good to me.

laconian2• 14 years ago

They're demonstrating that it's practically impossible for an average person to NOT run afoul of copyright law during natural everyday activities.

jkeel• 14 years ago

I think this is the even bigger story. If they did it on purpose, then it's hypocrisy. If it was by accident then it proves how hard is it to be compliant with the law 24/7.

Personally, I think a law with high consequences shouldn't be something you can accidentally break. I can understand something like accidentally going over the speed limit (within reason) in a car and getting a citation, but copyright laws allow for big fines and jail time.

laconian2• 14 years ago

The legal system suffers from sclerosis from all these laws being piled on top of each other. Lawmakers aren't interested in refactoring. :P

darksaga• 14 years ago

I hear a lot of people yelling about this, but is there anybody else who thinks this is totally awesome?

To me, this is just more ammunition these companies are giving to the people they're trying to prosecute.

And in this case, you actually have video supporting the notion this was not an "oops" situation.

Steko• 14 years ago

If the NFL does not file suit here I'm assuming they're ok with streaming as long as you see all their advertisements on the stream as well.

loceng• 14 years ago

I imagine so as well, as to main copyright you need to show you're enforcing it.

dethstarr• 14 years ago

This is an absolute joke. We need to heed YCombinator and "kill" Hollywood. Make Silicon Valley and S.F. the new entertainment and creative centers of America.

Let's merge technology with entertainment.

aleksandrm• 14 years ago

No thanks, Hollywood needs to stay where it is, in Hollywood.

bediger• 14 years ago

The real problem here is that Vevo (and the RIAA, when caught with an IP address that did BitTorrent) won't be persecuted under laws like SOPA/PIPA and whatever comes from ACTA and TPP. Since SOPA gives the DoJ and "rightsholders" discretion about who to shutdown, the situation will be more like the Great Firewall of China: "One eye open, one eye shut".

Some websites will mysteriously be allowed to stream video, others will get slapped down, hard. It will all depend on who you know, and what the transient policy of the moment is. I'm sure that MPAA and RIAA know that they will be allowed to act with discretion, I'm just not sure they know others will, as well, and what the fallout from that will be.

VEVO CEO tries to explain their hypocritical act of piracy at Sundance

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