Friday, October 19, 2007

Big, Small Media Create Colluding Copyright Cartel on Threat Level:

Some of the biggest and smallest media names announced Thursday the formation of what best can be described as a copyright cartel.

Disney, CBS, Microsoft, Fox, NBC, Viacom, Dailymotion, MySpace and Veoh Networks announced so-called User Generated Content Principles that appear aimed at stifling fair use. The announcement calls for the "implementation of state of the art filtering technology with the goal to eliminate infringing content on (user-generated content services), including blocking infringing uploads before they are made available to the public."

While the plan calls for "implementation" of filtering technology, it suggests "cooperating to ensure that the technology is implemented in a manner that effectively balances legitimate interests, including fair use."

THREAT LEVEL points out that Google, the owner of YouTube, is conspicuously absent from the cabal.