Damn, Felicia Day is everywhere. From The Guild to Dr. Horrible to machinima sitcoms, this organic online video star is on a roll. Now she appears as a neurotic fairy in The Legend of Neil, a parody of The Legend of Zelda created by her Guild costar Sandeep Parikh.

Yes, I know The Legend of Neil is produced by Comedy Central, which is owned by Viacom, which is a bunch of douchebags. I’ll let that slide just this once, just for Felicia.

Giving in to overwhelming public outrage, Viacom has granted YouTube’s request that they be allowed to anonymize your viewer information before handing it over.

Of course, liars that they are, Viacom claims they never asked for your personal info. Bullshit. Read more

Viacom claims they need your personal YouTube information, purportedly to prove their claim that most YouTube views came from Viacom content. The latter claim is patently ridiculous, and so is the former.

Viacom obviously does not need your personal YouTube info to prove its purported point. They can use your personal information, however, to sue you. Viacom knows it, YouTube knows it, and people know it. Judge Louis Stanton, who ruled in favor of Viacom violating your privacy, either doesn’t know or doesn’t care. That’s why YouTube’s lawyers are asking Viacom’s lawyers that any data YouTube gives Viacom be anonymized first. Read more

Louis Lee Stanton
United States Courthouse
500 Pearl St., Room 2250
New York, NY 10007

Courtroom: 21C
Chambers Phone: +1 (212) 805-0252
Deputy Phone: +1 (212) 805-0123
Fax: +1 (212) 805-0389 Read more

How fitting that we should fight oppression on Independence Day. YouTubers were swift to protest Viacom invading your privacy. Read more

Viacom just sacrificed your privacy to further their billion-dollar legal harassment of YouTube. US District Court Judge Louis Stanton just ordered YouTube to hand Viacom all personal information of all YouTube users. That includes names, IP addresses, viewing histories, everything.

YouTube, of course, argued that this would violate your privacy. Stanton dismissed that argument as “speculative”.

Yes, you read that right. Judge Louis Stanton says that the privacy implications of handing all your personal information to Viacom are merely “speculative”.

Speculative. Speculative! As a tech blogger, I’ve heard a lot of stupid things from a lot of stupid people over the years. Stanton’s statement has to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard. How the fuck did this guy become a judge? How much did Viacom pay Stanton to say something this stupid?

Why the Hell would Viacom need all your personal information for these legal proceedings? Purportedly, it’s all part of Viacom’s fishing expedition to prove their claim that most of YouTube’s views came from Viacom content.

Viacom obviously doesn’t need your personal info for that purported purpose, and they know it. I don’t think Viacom really wants to prove their claim. Having your personal info and viewing history will enable them to do something far more sinister. Read more

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.)

BayTSP CEO Mark Ishikawa, whose company sends all those indiscriminate takedown notices (a million a month!) to YouTube on behalf of Viacom and other studios, has a funny take on copyright law. He complains that YouTube’s copyright filter isn’t doing its “job”.

Two things, Ishikawa:

1) YouTube is a DMCA safe harbor. As such, it falls upon the copyright holder to send takedown notices. Stop complaining that YouTube is not doing your job for you.

2) DMCA takedown notices require sworn statements. You send lots of inaccurate takedown notices. That means you’ve committed multiple counts for perjury.

Corporate dogs should know their place. STFU, Mark Ishikawa.

(Photo by JD Lasica. It’s BY-NC, so if that professional copyright troll Ishikawa complains, he can go fuck himself.)

Neener neener.

A symbolic setback for Viacom in its $1 billion suit against Google’s YouTube. On Friday, US District Court Judge Louis Stanton denied the media conglomerate’s claim for punitive damages in the case. If the court had let the claim stand, it could have taken the damages associated with the lawsuit into funny money territory — at least theoretically.

Viacom is suing Google’s YouTube for a nice round $1 billion, but even that is a more-or-less made-up number based on a very large number of alleged copyright violations.

Frankly, I’m surprised it took a whole year to junk this ridiculous suit. That’s what happens to lazy old media giants who make stuff up instead of actually filing the paperwork required by law. Expect another rash of perjurous takedowns in petty retaliation.