said by nasadude
:said by Cabal
:Which category does illegally using the copyrighted works of others for profit fall under? (Note: for reference, this is still theft.)
Just because someone is stealing from your store doesn't mean you business model is flawed. It means you put a big guy with a baseball bat at the front of the store and protect your assets.
Bzzzzzzzztttt! Sorry, wrong answer - copyright infringement is infringement, not theft. What got "stolen"? Did the appearance of a clip on youtube make the clip disappear from viacom archives?
I'm not arguing viacom doesn't have the right to take legal action, just pointing out that this appears to be the current, default action that all the big media companies take in these circumstances.
And I'm also sorry, but it does appear big media business strategy is flawed for the digital age. The sooner they realize that and stop suing the bejesus out of anyone that does something they don't like, the sooner they will start making MORE MONEY.
What got stolen? Copyrighted works. Ask around the DI Forum and ask them if they consider the "theft" of their photographs to be stealing? 99.99% of them will come back and tell you that it IS "theft". Just because the copyrighted works are owned by "BIG BUSINESS", doesn't mean that they're not protected.