Viacom: "Fair use works for us," unlikely to sue bloggers
- Thursday, 04 March 2010 13:30
Viacom is unlikely to sue bloggers for posting their own clips of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, contrary to reports floating around on the Internet. The company clarified its position to Ars on Thursday, noting that it tries to be as permissive as possible when it comes to fair use and that individual bloggers have never been on the studio's radar.
The confusion began when the Hollywood Reporter ran a story on Wednesday titled "Viacom will sue bloggers who post unauthorized 'Daily Show' clips," quoting Viacom spokesperson Tony Fox. "Yes, we intend to do so," Fox was quoted saying. "My feeling is if (websites) are making money on our copyrighted content, then that is a problem."
We reached out to Viacom's VP of PR Jeremy Zweig to confirm whether this position was true. After all, as numerous parties have pointed out, both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report make liberal use of clips from other networks that undoubtedly fall under fair use, and it seemed as if Viacom was willing to go after the little guy in order to ensure that no one got a single penny of revenue except for Viacom. This, however, was not the case.
