VEVO, a music label joint venture, got caught with its pants down by TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid – They illegally streamed a NFL game at a party they hosted at the Sundance festival. Yes, this is just too deliciously, hypocritically juicy.
In other circumstances whoever was responsible would face severe criminal and civil penalties for copyright infringement.
Unless, and I’m quite serious about this, the copyright laws apply to everyone, then they shouldn’t apply to anyone. The only way for the legislators and copyright holders who are fighting for tougher copyright laws to maintain any credibility whatsoever is for them to pursue any and all violators, even their own, as aggressively as they pursue everyone else.
Frankly, the VEVO execs should turn themselves in, not fight this in the least, and serve their jail time. I believe they’d serve five years.
See TechDirt for more.
Uncrunched 
Good job, Jason
Fred Wilson keeps bragging about “pirate hockey broadcasts.”
Isn’t this an ad hominem argument against their stance? Pointing out their hypocrisy does not invalidate their argument.
Ad hominem is irrelevant here. Here’s the point of the article.
Big Media demands excessive punishments for copyright violators, but they themselves violate copyright. If we apply their own excessive punishments to them, they’ll back down and people like us will be safer.
The point is not to prove that their arguments are wrong. We all already know they’re wrong.
Punishments are supposed to fit crimes in this country. It’s ludicrous for Kim Dotcom to serve many more years than he would have for murder, even if he isn’t a typical copyright violator.
It’s sad and terrifying that a more innocent person could be imprisoned for copyright violations.
Just as you are not criminally prosecuted for all the watching of pirated TV shows you do, VEVO won’t be prosecuted here. Megaupload was a gigantic pirating network, paying people to post illegal content and refusing orders to take it down. It makes more sense to target the big guys.
What you said about Megaupload is completely false and uneducated.
I totally agree. They can’t expect to get away with “Do as I say and not Do as I Do”
“They illegally streamed a NFL game at a party they hosted at the Sundance festival.”
Don’t bars and restaurants play sports on TVs all the time?
You’d have a hard time suing any one particular person or company in a situation like this, even if somehow the event only allowed to be viewed by the person paying for it.
I don’t like copyright hungry music labels/movie companies either, but c’mon – this isn’t a big deal.
VEVO used an illegal streaming site as their source, it was just like a bar putting on NBC and playing the game. VEVO literally used one of the type of sites that ICE/DoJ has been seizing and arresting people for. Read the damn article.
Technically a bar cannot, in fact, play broadcast TV in order to secure patronage or increase profits without paying a license fee.
(1) Bars and restaurants pay license fees for sports channels; Vivo didn’t.
(2) It wasn’t even a legal channel
(3) Given their owners and target market, Vivo must know *exactly* what was required in a case like this.
Whatever would be done to bars which stream sports games without a license should be done to VEVO organizers here. Period.
It was only a few years ago that the NFL went after churches for broadcasting the Super Bowl: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/16930260/
wow.
True, but, “Church Super Bowl parties OK as long as NFL rules followed, experts say”
http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/4787/53/
so that’s why the podcast is late, you’re doodling around in the blogosphere.
Reblogged this on lcmilstein.
Vevo watching a pirated football game does not make them pirates. Just as you buying a counterfeit DVD doesn’t make you a counterfeiter
If you knowingly buy a counterfeit DVD you are just as liable (one count) as is the case with piracy.
Not true, the liabilities are totally different (besides the fact that “knowingly” is basically unenforceable).
Just wondering, although VEVO hired out the venue, wouldn’t the people who own the venue be responsible for what takes place their whether it’s their fault or not?
Also, if the venue probably had a cable subscription and yet went for the pirated live stream anyway would legal action really be taken against them? If I owned a certain DVD at home but was on a holiday somewhere and decided to download the DVD which I already have viewing rights to, how much trouble would I get into?
there*
According to the industry, it doesn’t matter if you own the DVD, since they’ve argued that even backing up your owned DVD (ripping it to a file, with no download at all) should be illegal.
Amen, Mike. I was sued for downloading music in ’06. I feel like they spit in my face.
I’m with Cory Doctorow on this. If they want 3-strikes laws then fine, but they should apply to corporations as well as private individuals. Any company found pirating three times or more has their entire corporate access to the internet cut off. At the present rate of infringements such as this one, it would only be a few years before one of the major labels or studios went down hard.
As steve says above (post 3 as I count it) that would be absurd. But that’s also the point, 3-strikes laws and other draconian penalties against private individuals are also absurd for the same reasons.
let the dudes of the hook, really, if these guys are convicted, crackdowns would be harder. But if for these guys go free, hollywood will owe us one.
Lets blame others for what we know is wrong when the consequences out way the risk of being caught. In other words. Everybody else is doing it so it must be ok to do it as long as I can deny it or sound off in the Hypocritical mode!
Recently on Youtube, a commercial by Vevo has been running promoting the live stream of Arcade Fire’s concert. And again, it’s just my luck that I happen to like the song playing in the background. I’ve searched everywhere for the title of the elusive song and I was wondering if anyone happened to know the name? It would be great if someone could help =D Thanks!
The song that is played in his commercial on vevo certified ad, is a song that i really like. But I don’t know the name of it. Help?