I had several versions of the title for this post rolling around in my head. Several contained not so nice words to describe how flat out stupid Viacom is. If you haven’t heard the news, after working on a deal with YouTube to license content that fell apart. They then demanded that over 100,000 pieces of video be removed from the online service many of which had been viewed over 100,000 times by the YouTube audience. (by the way some of the content wasn’t even Viacom content) I understand that Viacom has the right to do this under copyright laws. I am a publisher too and I have from time to time protected my intellectual property rights.

But…..
Suing YouTube for a billion dollars is just plain short sighted and as I mentioned above STUPID. The amount of viewership, exposure and PR they received from this outlet far out weights any revenue loss that occurred. This action could cause a landslide of suits against YouTube and could in the end cripple the service but in doing so it will negatively affect Viacom and the shows it produces.

The executives at Viacom should take a little bit of the revenue they are so focused on protecting and head on down to the local store and buy themselves a clue or better yet a copy of The Cluetrain Manifesto.

Idiots!