ABS-CBN


ABS-CBN Suing People for Linking to YouTube Videos!?

Whether it’s real or bogus, it’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard all year. A commenter on my blog reports that ailing Philippine TV network ABS-CBN is threatening to sue people for the mere act of linking to a YouTube video!

I have a dilemma I received today an email from “abs-cbn security” that they were suing youtube and I for copyright infrigement. I have been watching Maging Sino Ka Man via karla193 and seanfelipe. Well, Karla193 account or IP was banned but through the grapevine she established another one via lab139, so I shared it with fellow cyberpinoys even to the point that I put it under my favorites for others to view. My question is can abs-cbn really sue me and the fact that I’m all the way in Atlanta, GA. Lastly, I got so spooked by their email that I closed my account. Need some advice..

Sharon

Let the incredible absurdity of this threat sink in for a moment: a company is suing someone for posting a hyperlink to someone else’s page on another company’s site, on another page of that same site. This goes way beyond ignoring the DMCA Safe Harbor Provisions, straight into deep ignorance of the hyperlinked nature of the Web itself. I’m no lawyer, but I’m sure no jury in its right mind could possibly rule against someone for the mere act of posting a hyperlink! A company you have no relationship with, threatening you over what you bookmark on your own personal Web services, is simply deluded by its own boneheaded hubris.

Sharon, this is either a ridiculous hoax or an empty threat. Either way, it’s an insult to your intelligence.

TV and YouTube: It’s All About the Money

Paul Kaputska hits the nail on the head: Viacom’s YouTube pulldown and the new NBC chief’s mad ramblings are just pathetic, impatient cries for more money.

That’s why even one of the big old lions, Sumner Redstone, is also saying publicly he’s ready to deal. Here he tells the Hollywood Reporter’s Germany bureau that content pulled down can easily be put back up if the price is right:

If YouTube would come along and offer us a deal that is commensurate with the value of the programming that we spend so many millions and so much time to create, we would certainly look at that.

So we guess it’s not really about the filtering after all. Just about where the money filters down to. And since Google is now taking steps to find more money in YouTube, maybe all will be well before long.

Of course, ailing Philippine TV network ABS-CBN is clearly the exception. I know they’re stupid enough to pull clips off YouTube thinking their own crappy little video paysite is any competition, but even I doubt they’re stupid enough to think a third-rate third-world station can blackmail the world’s top video site into giving them money.

Again, may I emphasize that I don’t care if TV networks want their manufactured content to fall off the YouTube charts. Call me crazy, but I’d rather watch real people with real talent who are willing to share it.