CNN Shows Its Thin Skin
In the latest example of a big media company complaining about a YouTube clip, CNN has demanded that the video-sharing site remove a video that incorporates some footage from the network. — The problem for CNN is that the clip, posted by the group Founding Bloggers …
Context & Ripple Effects
CNN's takedown request is the third act in a familiar broadcaster-versus-YouTube script: NBC sued over its content in 2007 (NBC lined up against YouTube in a copyright case) and the EFF spent last October publicly shaming networks for blocking campaign videos (EFF's call to stop blocking election videos), after Viacom was caught doing its own unauthorized uploading back in March 2007 (Viacom's own video pirates).
The timing is awkward for CNN. Days earlier the network had aired a segment asking whether there was a Twitter backlash — itself framed as emerging-media commentary — and now it is enforcing copyright against a blogger group that reused its footage. It also cuts against YouTube's direction: just days before the demand, the site signed Sony to bring professionally produced video aboard and began positioning studio content as a marquee product alongside user uploads.
First-order effects
- YouTube faces a direct enforcement decision on the Founding Bloggers clip, and CNN gets the removal it asked for — while handing the small blog outfit far wider attention than the original upload earned.
Second-order effects
- Other broadcasters weighing their posture toward YouTube now see the bind sharpened: the same platform signing Sony and courting studio content is where their footage keeps getting remixed, so each network must choose between enforcement optics and distribution reach.
Third-order effects
- If takedown requests keep answering remixes of news footage rather than licensing or fair-use guidelines, platforms like YouTube harden into de facto arbiters of how broadcast material may be reused by commentators — a role no broadcaster explicitly granted them.
The trend: Broadcasters are learning that enforcing copyright on YouTube collides with both fair-use commentary norms and the platform's push to become a home for professional studio content.