Sumner Redstone Hates You
May 14, 2008 by Mike Abundo
Filed under Computers, Television
At a recent conference in Korea, John C. Dvorak found out just how much Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone hates fans of his shows:
[According to Redstone] When you post a clip of The Daily Show on YouTube, for example, that may indeed have a positive effect on the show and its ratings, but it’s not your decision to make. In the world of the media giants, a fan has no special privileges and is not part of the marketing department.
As a fan, your job is to watch a few ads (or buy a ticket), enjoy the show, tell your friends about it, and get out of the way.
Screw that. Redstone should be thanking fans for promoting his shows on YouTube. As Dvorak points out, a ten-minute YouTube clip of a one-hour show is clearly an excerpt, thus qualifying as fair use.
This is why I rarely link to Viacom stuff, even from their official site. If Redstone doesn’t want customer evangelism, why the Hell should I give him any?
(Image via BusinessWeek.)
Sorry I disagree with your righteous indignation about Sumner. Just because John Q. Public can take advantage in this flaw in the system that allows people to distribute his copyrighted material that cost millions to make doesn’t mean that it’s right. To me it’s a copyright infringement and I think YouTube will take a pretty huge hit because of it.
Fair use is a “flaw in the system”? Wow. I guess every academic paper that’s ever excerpted something should be rescinded!
I guess Redstone forget we as fans are the reason why he has an monoply with MV,Nickelodean and the comedy channel. We as fans keep him employed. So if anything Redstone should be thanking us for prompting the show on youtube it probley got even viewers then anything.