Viacom claims copyright on Irrlicht video
Posted on:February 05 2007
Viacom, the corporation behind MTV, DreamWorks and Paramount is now claiming they own the copyright on a video of an Irrlicht tutorial. Which is completely ridiculous, of course: The whole thing has been written by me and the Irrlicht team, even textures and skins and logos have been created by me, and an Irrlicht Engine user (veegun?) simply filmed and published it on Youtube.com. Here is a screenshot of the tutorial, it's really just a 2D GUI rendered using the 3D engine, nothing special at all.
BoingBoing summarizes this: Viacom terrorized YouTube with 100,000 bullshit DMCA take-down notices. And we are one of the 100.000 victims. Here are the details of our case to read, on the Irrlicht Engine forum.
My personal consequence: I own about 150, legally purchased DVDs and funded those evil bastards with this. I am stopping to buy DVDs right now. Even if this was a stupid typing error and mistake.
Comments:
Maybe a mistake ?
Aranoth
Quote2007-02-05 19:20:00
You're right that's just ridiculous. Nothing more I can say about it -.-
dwayne-op
Quote2007-02-05 19:25:00
Just an FYI there is an email adress where you can report your censored video to. it's by a harvard law school guy who too got censored (find it at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/02/viacom-owns-this-the-original-of-this-video-was-taken-down-from-youtube-at-viacoms-request/ -your blog obviously hates pasted email adresses ). Even if nothing else comes out of it, it would be interesting to see how widespread the "collateral damage" is.
g.
Quote2007-02-05 21:28:00
I've just discovered that a music band has the name of 'Irrlicht', too. Maybe the problem is that, if the 'Irrlicht' band is a part of Viacom...
Aranoth
Quote2007-02-05 21:44:00
They are so greedy !! But mostly : They are so dumb !!!
Hervé
Quote2007-02-05 23:21:00
Now we know how they found over 100,000 "illegal" videos on YouTube ... :p
artemis
Quote2007-02-05 23:38:00
AGH! bad blog commenting code! No biscuit! Go sit in corner!
Ahem.
Didn't someone try this on you already? I seem to recall someone claiming (il)legal ownership of an open-source product about a year ago, and demanding payments.
Technically, Viacom is infringing on your Irrlicht copyright if they're serious about this, aren't they?
Ahem.
Didn't someone try this on you already? I seem to recall someone claiming (il)legal ownership of an open-source product about a year ago, and demanding payments.
Technically, Viacom is infringing on your Irrlicht copyright if they're serious about this, aren't they?
Yukikaze
Quote2007-02-06 03:45:00
Just shows what an idiot and his automated search bot can do. I'm sure they just brute-force matched YouTube descriptions against known Viacom properties. Notices like that are cheap to send and they know most people won't bother to challenge them, so there's no point hand-checking every one.
Steve
Quote2007-02-06 10:56:00
wtf?!
Viacom is loaded with shit!
If i ever see a 'product' that comes from Viacom, i'll Spit on it!
Viacom is loaded with shit!
If i ever see a 'product' that comes from Viacom, i'll Spit on it!
onemoreinthiswor
Quote2007-02-06 13:04:00
sorry for lame offtopic post.
But does anyone here knows what happened to gamedev.net?
What's up with that weird image they are showing for two days already?
I am stupid enough not to have saved some tutorials I was using,
maybe some handy mirror is available apart from slow-ass wayback machine?
But does anyone here knows what happened to gamedev.net?
What's up with that weird image they are showing for two days already?
I am stupid enough not to have saved some tutorials I was using,
maybe some handy mirror is available apart from slow-ass wayback machine?
This_guy
Quote2007-02-06 14:22:00
there's more than a stupid image
there is a disclaimer text that explains that they're recovering from a malicious attack ...
there is a disclaimer text that explains that they're recovering from a malicious attack ...
Greg
Quote2007-02-06 15:29:00
Send a email to copyright@youtube.com
Say that Viacom doesn't have any rights of the video.
Viacom, must die, or make a donation for this project.
Say that Viacom doesn't have any rights of the video.
Viacom, must die, or make a donation for this project.
Viacom not, than
Quote2007-02-06 17:59:00
Maybe I missed the point but has anyone determined what caused viacom to make this claim? If it was a false positive what about the video set viacom's little bot off?
TSM
Quote2007-02-06 19:19:00
Have you seen the amount of paperwork and legal action involved in pointing out that they made a mistake? It's not worth it.
jclins
Quote2007-02-06 20:04:00
juste upload the image again ;)
Halan
Quote2007-02-06 20:18:00
If you need anything, I can host the tutorial and any other videos you have done. I don't bend over for this lovely country of freedom, nor will my children. E-Mail me and I'll throw in free 100MB of web space and your own account.
Daniel Maresca J
Quote2007-02-06 22:29:00
http://games.slashdot.org/games/07/02/06/2045237.shtml
haha, it's on slashdot...
haha, it's on slashdot...
hugo
Quote2007-02-06 22:41:00
If Viacom wrongly identifies itself as the copyright holder and then exercises rights that are otherwise those of the actual copyright holder, that is a form of copyright infringement. Sue them. Small claims court will do. If they don't show, you can get a default judgment, have your rights affirmed by the court so YouTube can put it back, and forward a bill to Viacom's legal department. No big deal, cost you a few hours and $50 I would guess...
Robert Shapiro
Quote2007-02-06 23:39:00
as I just posted on the forum... niko has given his permission to use the material via Irrlicht's liberal license, so veegun has full rights to make derived works and distribute them. So (correct me if I'm wrong) he's the only person who can do any suing.
I'd quite happily donate the $50 just to see how it turns out though ;-)
I'd quite happily donate the $50 just to see how it turns out though ;-)
gaz
Quote2007-02-07 00:41:00
Issuing a DMCA takedown notice requires acceptance of liability if the notice should incorrectly identify the ownership of the target material.
Check with the EFF; they may be able to provide pro bono legal advice to counter Viacom and actually do them some damage.
Check with the EFF; they may be able to provide pro bono legal advice to counter Viacom and actually do them some damage.
Phoenix Rising
Quote2007-02-07 01:37:00
press@viacom.com email them and see what they say. Or you can have a lawyer call their office and threaten legal action if they don't withdraw their complaint.
Viacom
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
(212) 258-6000
Viacom
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
(212) 258-6000
Contact Them
Quote2007-02-07 03:18:00
Perhaps viacom thought it was a video for Schiller Irrlicht. There must be some penalty for sending out false DMCA notices even if they are "honest" mistakes.
BostonSteve
Quote2007-02-07 05:08:00
It appears they tagged the name. Klaus Schiller has an album out with a song titled "Irrlict"- Viacom owns the label it was published under. Someone screwed up bigtime- they went name mining instead of doing their job and verifying that content was theirs to begin with. Typical, really.
Frank Earl
Quote2007-02-07 08:21:00
I'm with you completely, dude! They must Stop abusing!
N3BB3Z4R
Quote2007-02-07 10:09:00
Send it to a news firm, or better, use shortnews.de or something like that ;)
But well, i see it in front of my eyes, the response of viacom: We are very sorry about that. And we make a mistake .. blah blah blah... and the viacom index raises oO
But well, i see it in front of my eyes, the response of viacom: We are very sorry about that. And we make a mistake .. blah blah blah... and the viacom index raises oO
Q-efx
Quote2007-02-07 17:01:00
Uh, as i crawled deeper, i sawed that "irrlicht" is a music cd, well then the question is: is the name irrlicht trademarked, as just a music CD , or they bought "every thing" that could named irrlicht. So maybe you have to completly rename your project.... my idea: FoV3D , fuck on viacom... ehr eh Field of view *fg*
Q-efx
Quote2007-02-07 17:13:00
can a normal german word like "irrlicht" be trademarked? would be strange. let's trademark everything until nothing is left from the whole language. :p
hugo
Quote2007-02-07 18:01:00
I don't think the DMCA doesn't cover trademark issues? But I'm not sure. And of course, we've send them a mail.
niko
Quote2007-02-07 19:25:00
@hugo
actually it can be... just think about apple
actually it can be... just think about apple
Fre4LeTy
Quote2007-02-07 19:37:00
@hugo && Fre4LeTy
It all depends on the use of the word. obviously, the words apple and irrlicht aren't trademarked for every day speech, but in certain uses and contexts, they're trademarked.
It all depends on the use of the word. obviously, the words apple and irrlicht aren't trademarked for every day speech, but in certain uses and contexts, they're trademarked.
RabidLockerGnome
Quote2007-02-08 23:05:00
Hmm, concerning the recent legal issue between the apple computer company and the apple records (ex-beatles-record-company) the context can be broadly interpreted.
SirKline
Quote2007-02-09 13:42:00
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