The Journal Of The InnKeeper

So, apparently Viacom, in a totally irresponsible and extremely arrogant move, did a very crude search of YouTube content for ANY term related to ANY of their shows and then SPAMMED YOUTUBE WITH DMCA-TAKEDOWN NOTICES ... 100,000 to be specific.  According to the DMCA, youtube is obligated to take down any content reported as copyright infringement immediately.  They are supposed to actually investigate them, but with as huge as youtube is, they don't really have the time or resources.  Consequently, THOUSANDS of youtube users had their totally copyright-infringement-free content removed from youtube's servers and these users are now on a list of potential copyright infringers.  

How I came about this information was when I discovered that one of my favorite videos, "re: Your Brains" by Spiffworld - music by Jonathan Coulton, has been taken down with a notice about copyright infringement.  Since Mr. Coulton says right on his website that all his songs are under the Creative Commons license (which means anyone can use his songs in any way, as is or altered), this video was clearly not copyright-infringed.  Jonathon Coulton is now notified and is keeping up with developments on his website http://www.jonathancoulton.com and he has included a couple of links to outside news sources who have caught wind of this fiasco.  I plan to show my support by visiting the http://www.metacafe.com/tags/spiffworld and downloading the video where Spiff has also posted it, and re-uploading it to youtube as soon as I have some time.