Newsday and copyright

Here's an interesting little thing I came across at Newsday's TV Zone blog:

Here's a nice full clean clip from a Chinese TV network (of all places) of last night's show closing performance. There are number of other clips on Youtube, too, if you prefer. Watch before CBS deactivates, which could be any minute now...

TVZone then embeds the U2 clip.

So think about that. Newsday, which is thinking about putting its online content behind a paid wall, has one of its blogs posting content it knows has been stolen from another company and is encouraging its readers to click on the link before CBS' legal team puts a stop to it. Presumably CBS would prefer you either watch the clip on TV, when it's surrounded by ads, or on the CBS website, where they get credit for your eyeballs.

So, tell me again, why is it that no one can find a viable business model for funding original news gathering?

(By the way, the husband and I were at the Letterman/U2 taping on Monday. It was a total coincidence that we got tickets. When we walked by the Ed Sullivan theater on Sunday, there was a sign outside saying "free tickets." There were only two people in line, so we filled out a form for the lottery. They called my cell phone about two hours later saying we were confirmed for Monday. Details here.)

Labels: media, nyc, pictures

- posted by Amy @ 3/03/2009 10:28:00 AM