This lawsuit seems pretty evil to me, so here's the letter I wrote to Viacom (press@viacom.com):
Dear Viacom,
I am writing to ask that you immediately drop your lawsuit against
Google, Inc. While copyright law remains a fascinating and somewhat
nebulous area in our society, the social implications are clear.
People love sharing and viewing videos on the internet. For years I
tried watching clips of the Daily Show, and other Comedy Central
programming on a frequently slow or broken Real Audio or Windows Media
format. I had given up watching the show because of the frustration.
YouTube returned to me the ability and pleasure of watching Jon
Stewart as well as Steven Colbert, and helped me to love these shows.
As of today I will begin a boycott of any and all products advertised
during these two shows, until such time as the lawsuit against Google
is dropped. YouTube has done a great service for Viacom -
renewing interest in your programs and distributing them at no charge
to you. The highlight clips created by YouTube users are far superior
to what your site has to offer. As a viewer I will not stand by and
watch this corporate greed, and I intend to use my financial and
social influence to ensure that your company desists in its
inappropriate actions.
Once again, no advertiser on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, or
any other program aired by Comedy Central will see a single dollar of
mine. Please be assured that I will email each of these boycotted
companies individually to inform them of my choice.
Prior to 1995, Microsoft licensed MS-DOS (and Windows) to computer manufacturers under three types of agreement: per-processor (a fee for each system the company sold), per-system (a fee for each system of a particular model), or per-copy (a fee for each copy of MS-DOS installed). The largest manufacturers used the per-processor arrangement, which had the lowest fee. This arrangement made it expensive for the large manufacturers to migrate to any other operating system, such as DR-DOS.
The Universal deal tying hardware to software makes me think about that. Makes me a bit worried too.
Slashdot Mirror
Hard to believe I know.
Dear Viacom,
I am writing to ask that you immediately drop your lawsuit against Google, Inc. While copyright law remains a fascinating and somewhat nebulous area in our society, the social implications are clear. People love sharing and viewing videos on the internet. For years I tried watching clips of the Daily Show, and other Comedy Central programming on a frequently slow or broken Real Audio or Windows Media format. I had given up watching the show because of the frustration. YouTube returned to me the ability and pleasure of watching Jon Stewart as well as Steven Colbert, and helped me to love these shows.
As of today I will begin a boycott of any and all products advertised during these two shows, until such time as the lawsuit against Google is dropped. YouTube has done a great service for Viacom - renewing interest in your programs and distributing them at no charge to you. The highlight clips created by YouTube users are far superior to what your site has to offer. As a viewer I will not stand by and watch this corporate greed, and I intend to use my financial and social influence to ensure that your company desists in its inappropriate actions.
Once again, no advertiser on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, or any other program aired by Comedy Central will see a single dollar of mine. Please be assured that I will email each of these boycotted companies individually to inform them of my choice.
Sincerely,
zzug
[address]
[email]
[etc.]
The one they used to knock everyone else out of the DOS market...
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_DOS#Legal_