Viacom Sucks Donkey Balls
You Can't Stop The Signal!
I was all set to go with a lengthy blogpost on the joys and terrors of 1980's music, complete with lots of links to music videos on YouTube. It was one of those blogposts that festers in draft form for weeks, until you finally get off your butt and finish it up.
Well, Viacom finished it for me. About 80% of the links to the music videos are dead now, due to Viacom's cease & desist warning to YouTube in February.
See, Viacom claims ownership of the videos. Apparently, by their logic, if a video has ever been aired on one of their stations, they own the rights to it in perpetuity. It's the kind of fine-print logic that makes the byzantine EULAs on computer software seem crystal clear.
Let me see if I can follow the logic...
A bunch of kids form a band. They practice a lot, play a few gigs, and get a good reputation. They play larger and larger venues as their fan base grows. They're getting good writeups in the local music press. Sooner or later some A&R weasel for an indie record label talks 'em into a shitty 3 record deal. The band goes broke paying for the record jacket art and the studio fees, but now they're sleeping in their van and washing in the 7-11 bathroom, and as a result they gain immense indie cred.
Current cost to Viacom? Nada. Nothing. Zip.
The buzz grows. Regional tours are scheduled. The record company can't afford any promotions, so they tie in with a beer company for swag, posters and banners, and a free case of brew the night of the gig, as long as the sponsor is mentioned 4 times during the show, and all beer bottles are placed label-forward on the drum riser and amps.
Sooner or later a major record label A&R weasel catches a great show, pisses his britches in joy at finding the Next Big Thing, and offers the band a deal. The major label will buy out the band's contract with the indie outfit, and front the cash for the next record. They bring in Rick Rubin to produce, hire some Eurotrash image consultant, fire the drummer, and charge all this to the band's account.
With me so far? OK, currently thousands and thousands of dollars are being spent on recording, promotion and coke whores. Current cost to Viacom? Nada. Nothing. Zip.
The label fronts the cash for a music video, in hopes of getting it in rotation on the Next Big Thing Video Hour that plays from 2 am to 3 am CST on Wednesday nights.
Additional thousands and thousands of dollars are dropped on the video production, catering, booze, dupe tapes, clearances, legal mumbojumbo, yadda, yadda yadda.
Current cost to Viacom? Nada. Nothing. Zip.
The videotapes are FedExed far and wide, in hopes that some music video show somewhere picks it up. No one does.
Eventually, the major record label A&R weasel slips the producers of 120 Minutes a wad of cash and 10 grams of coke, and the video gets aired precisely twice. Viacom's making their revenue off of advertising and cable subscription fees, so... Current cost to Viacom? Nada. Well, OK, maybe a carting service fee for the removal of dead coke whores.
Long story short, the band splits up 2 weeks later, leaving the hapless band manager holding the bag for $1,560,000 in debt to the record label, and he never got the wild multi-groupie humjob he was promised. The guitar player runs off with an undead coke whore, the bass player retreats to a Buddhist monastery in Bhutan, and the replacement drummer just explodes for some reason.
Current cost to Viacom? Nada. Nothing. Zip. OK, maybe they pay a cleaning service to dust the video shelves once a year.
However... based on those two miserable airings back in 1987, Viacom claims ownership in perpetuity to the music video they had no actual financial stake in. To make matters worse, they actively threaten litigation to YouTube and the poor saps that managed to save those 20 year old VHS tapes and as a tribute to bands long gone away, uploaded some old videos to YouTube.
Viacom, you absolutely SUCK DONKEY BALLS!!!!
I was all set to go with a lengthy blogpost on the joys and terrors of 1980's music, complete with lots of links to music videos on YouTube. It was one of those blogposts that festers in draft form for weeks, until you finally get off your butt and finish it up.
Well, Viacom finished it for me. About 80% of the links to the music videos are dead now, due to Viacom's cease & desist warning to YouTube in February.
See, Viacom claims ownership of the videos. Apparently, by their logic, if a video has ever been aired on one of their stations, they own the rights to it in perpetuity. It's the kind of fine-print logic that makes the byzantine EULAs on computer software seem crystal clear.
Let me see if I can follow the logic...
A bunch of kids form a band. They practice a lot, play a few gigs, and get a good reputation. They play larger and larger venues as their fan base grows. They're getting good writeups in the local music press. Sooner or later some A&R weasel for an indie record label talks 'em into a shitty 3 record deal. The band goes broke paying for the record jacket art and the studio fees, but now they're sleeping in their van and washing in the 7-11 bathroom, and as a result they gain immense indie cred.
Current cost to Viacom? Nada. Nothing. Zip.
The buzz grows. Regional tours are scheduled. The record company can't afford any promotions, so they tie in with a beer company for swag, posters and banners, and a free case of brew the night of the gig, as long as the sponsor is mentioned 4 times during the show, and all beer bottles are placed label-forward on the drum riser and amps.
Sooner or later a major record label A&R weasel catches a great show, pisses his britches in joy at finding the Next Big Thing, and offers the band a deal. The major label will buy out the band's contract with the indie outfit, and front the cash for the next record. They bring in Rick Rubin to produce, hire some Eurotrash image consultant, fire the drummer, and charge all this to the band's account.
With me so far? OK, currently thousands and thousands of dollars are being spent on recording, promotion and coke whores. Current cost to Viacom? Nada. Nothing. Zip.
The label fronts the cash for a music video, in hopes of getting it in rotation on the Next Big Thing Video Hour that plays from 2 am to 3 am CST on Wednesday nights.
Additional thousands and thousands of dollars are dropped on the video production, catering, booze, dupe tapes, clearances, legal mumbojumbo, yadda, yadda yadda.
Current cost to Viacom? Nada. Nothing. Zip.
The videotapes are FedExed far and wide, in hopes that some music video show somewhere picks it up. No one does.
Eventually, the major record label A&R weasel slips the producers of 120 Minutes a wad of cash and 10 grams of coke, and the video gets aired precisely twice. Viacom's making their revenue off of advertising and cable subscription fees, so... Current cost to Viacom? Nada. Well, OK, maybe a carting service fee for the removal of dead coke whores.
Long story short, the band splits up 2 weeks later, leaving the hapless band manager holding the bag for $1,560,000 in debt to the record label, and he never got the wild multi-groupie humjob he was promised. The guitar player runs off with an undead coke whore, the bass player retreats to a Buddhist monastery in Bhutan, and the replacement drummer just explodes for some reason.
Current cost to Viacom? Nada. Nothing. Zip. OK, maybe they pay a cleaning service to dust the video shelves once a year.
However... based on those two miserable airings back in 1987, Viacom claims ownership in perpetuity to the music video they had no actual financial stake in. To make matters worse, they actively threaten litigation to YouTube and the poor saps that managed to save those 20 year old VHS tapes and as a tribute to bands long gone away, uploaded some old videos to YouTube.
Viacom, you absolutely SUCK DONKEY BALLS!!!!
posted by El Capitan | 6:42 PM
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