CLIP Why Viacom Ignores Mash-ups of Its Copyrighted Content

Ad Age: Feb. 12, 2009

Produced by Hoag Levins 

Viacom general counsel Michael Fricklas lets mash-ups of its copyrighted content slide by.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Using special filter systems, search engines and a crew of dogged digital gumshoes, Viacom has succeeded in having hundreds of thousands of infringing online videos removed from the Internet. Appearing at Gotham Media Ventures' recent legal seminar, the media giant's general counsel, Michael Fricklas, discussed that massive in-house operation. He also detailed how Viacom, which operates a slew of user-generated video sites across its many properties, systematically polices that content for copyright violations.