Ars Technica
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.
"The headline is completely wrong," Zweig told Ars. He emphasized that the company has always been fairly open with fair use and that its policy has not changed. "Frankly, fair use works for us. I can't recall a time we've ever sued a blogger for the use of a Comedy Central clip, and there's no reason to believe that would be more likely today."
It's likely that Fox was referring to larger commercial websites that repost episodes without using the official embed tool from Comedy Central. In that case, it's not hard to see why Viacom would go after those whose sole purpose is to make money (via banner ads) by hosting Viacom's content, but according to Zweig, individual users have never been on the company's radar.
The news follows Hulu's announcement earlier this week that the two shows would disappear from its own site as of 11:59pm PST on Tuesday, March 9. Hulu said that the two shows have had "very strong results" over the past 21 months, both in terms of viewership and advertising revenue, but that the team at Comedy Central decided to pull out after a series of (apparently unsuccessful) discussions to keep the shows on Hulu.
The decision has been a controversial one among fans of the shows who also like Hulu. The shows will remain online, of course, but at TheDailyShow.com and ColbertNation.com, forcing regular Hulu users to add new stops along the information superhighway if they want to continue watching the same shows.
Still, online ad revenue is already not great compared to traditional TV, and Hulu has been struggling lately to fill some of its ad spots with much of anything. (Regular watchers know that the charity ads are just filler, and sometimes, you even get a black screen that simply says there are no ads to show for the time being.) Even though Hulu claims the two shows have been doing well lately, Comedy Central still has to split its revenue with Hulu, and in times like these, any split is probably too much.
This isn't to say that Stephen Colbert and John Stewart won't be showing up on Hulu again in the future, though. Part of the reason Hulu was so amicable in its announcement was undoubtedly to ensure that talks will continue and the shows might come back one day. After all, Hulu has been working on a plan to start charging for content—possibly by way of subscription or sticking the most popular shows behind a paywall. If Hulu manages to roll out such a service and it takes off with users, Viacom and Comedy Central may be open to bringing the shows back to take advantage of the new revenue stream.
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.
"The headline is completely wrong," Zweig told Ars. He emphasized that the company has always been fairly open with fair use and that its policy has not changed. "Frankly, fair use works for us. I can't recall a time we've ever sued a blogger for the use of a Comedy Central clip, and there's no reason to believe that would be more likely today."
It's likely that Fox was referring to larger commercial websites that repost episodes without using the official embed tool from Comedy Central. In that case, it's not hard to see why Viacom would go after those whose sole purpose is to make money (via banner ads) by hosting Viacom's content, but according to Zweig, individual users have never been on the company's radar.
The news follows Hulu's announcement earlier this week that the two shows would disappear from its own site as of 11:59pm PST on Tuesday, March 9. Hulu said that the two shows have had "very strong results" over the past 21 months, both in terms of viewership and advertising revenue, but that the team at Comedy Central decided to pull out after a series of (apparently unsuccessful) discussions to keep the shows on Hulu.
The decision has been a controversial one among fans of the shows who also like Hulu. The shows will remain online, of course, but at TheDailyShow.com and ColbertNation.com, forcing regular Hulu users to add new stops along the information superhighway if they want to continue watching the same shows.
Still, online ad revenue is already not great compared to traditional TV, and Hulu has been struggling lately to fill some of its ad spots with much of anything. (Regular watchers know that the charity ads are just filler, and sometimes, you even get a black screen that simply says there are no ads to show for the time being.) Even though Hulu claims the two shows have been doing well lately, Comedy Central still has to split its revenue with Hulu, and in times like these, any split is probably too much.
This isn't to say that Stephen Colbert and John Stewart won't be showing up on Hulu again in the future, though. Part of the reason Hulu was so amicable in its announcement was undoubtedly to ensure that talks will continue and the shows might come back one day. After all, Hulu has been working on a plan to start charging for content—possibly by way of subscription or sticking the most popular shows behind a paywall. If Hulu manages to roll out such a service and it takes off with users, Viacom and Comedy Central may be open to bringing the shows back to take advantage of the new revenue stream.
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