YouTube: Now with .01 Percent Less Entertainment!

Remember when Google bought YouTube, media analysts called the move risky because of YouTube’s shaky relationship with copyright laws? Everybody was worried for, like, a minute and then watched a bunch of Wonder Showzen clips on YouTube and forgot the whole thing ever happened.

Well, while we were laughing, apparently a lot of shit went down behind the scenes.

On Friday, massive media conglomerate Viacom demanded that YouTube remove all Viacom-related content from the site. It’s more or less the endgame in a protracted legal battle between Viacom and YouTube’s parent company, Google.

Since Viacom owns MTV, MTV2 and Comedy Central, that means a lot of extremely YouTube-friendly content – The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Wonder Showzen, Jackass, South Park and more – needs to be off the site. Of course, because YouTube’s content is user-driven, the clips can be reposted. The chaotic nature of user-submitted content seems to ensure something’s going to slip by.

As a result, YouTube’s lawyers have evidently declared a gangland war against purported Viacom theft. There’s already been random shrapnel in this intellectual property drive-by; a Massachusetts man was threatened with legal action for posting a video on YouTube called “Sunday nite dinner at Redbones in Somerville, Mass.” According to the letter he received, the video, concerning a group of friends having dinner, infringed on Viacom international.

Viacom isn’t the first group to reclaim their intellectual property from YouTube – Time Warner, Universal Music and others have threatened to sue YouTube, and News Corp recently subpoenaed YouTube for names of people who uploaded Simpsons and 24 clips – Viacom has been the most consistent pain in YouTube’s ass.

Last November, under orders from Viacom, YouTube pulled its Comedy Central clips. A week later, with little explanation, the clips returned. That same month, the CBS network announced that YouTube clips of David Letterman had drawn more viewers to the show.

It’s weird that an institution as unhip as the Tiffany network, the home of Walker, Texas Ranger, would be as cool about YouTube and Viacom, which owns youth-tastic entertainment outlets Comedy Central and MTV (Incidentally, Viacom and CBS used to be the same company until splitting in 2005). Weirder still is how Viacom shows, notably The Colbert Report, embraces web-driven audience interactivity. Also weird is how Viacom owns iFilm.com, which was the biggest viral video game in town until YouTube.

Viacom must have some larger strategy at work. They’re at risk of alienating their core audiences of twitchy internet nerds. Also, they must realize how statistically insignificant their YouTube contributions are. News reports say YouTube needs to take down 100,000 clips because of Viacom’s orders. YouTube has over 70 million videos. Colbert’s cool and all, but there’s a lot of other shit out there.

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