Michael Fricklas, general counsel at entertainment mega-corp Viacom, has admitted that suing end users for online copyright infringement is “expensive, painful and feels like bullying.”
Fricklas went even further, telling students at Yale Law School, that clamping down on university students with “expensive lawyers and unlimited resources felt like terrorism.”
While Fricklas wouldn’t go as far as condeming DRM, he said that customers “need to be treated with respect” and that a lot of DRM in the past was “really bad”.
He said that Viacom is now more focused on “fair use” and making sure people have access to the “exact copy”. Fricklas raised the example of Kanye West rushing the stage at the MTV music awards.
Viacom uploaded the evening’s footage into Youtube to make sure other users couldn’t upload the same footage and to make sure it made money from ads. It also allowed users to make and upload parodies.
Let’s hope that Viacom sticks with Fricklas’ theory. We’re happy to stick to the rules but we don’t like seeing big companies beating on the little guy.
Out now | £free | Viacom (via Ars Technica)
