Viacom v. MoveOn.org and Brave New Films [1]

MoveOn.org [2], a progressive political organization, and Brave New Films, LLC, a politically oriented film company, created a video [3] parodying Comedy Central's Colbert Report [4]. The video, entitled "Stop the Falsiness," shows clips of the Colbert Report interspersed with tounge-in-cheek "commentary" from MoveOn activists and other political personalities, including liberal pundit Al Franken and Democratic sentator Russ Fiengold. MoveOn and Brave New Films uploaded the video to YouTube in August 2006. They also published it on a separate website, Stop the Falsiness [5].

On or about March 13, 2007, Viacom, the corporate parent of Comedy Central, delivered a takedown notice to YouTube pursuant to section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [6], apparentl asserting that "Stop the Falsiness" violated its copyright and requesting that it be taken down. (Although Viacom later disputed sending the takedown demand, a notice [7] appeared on YouTube on March 13, 2007 indicating that the video had been removed due to a copyright claim by Viacom, and Viacom ultimately relented.)

MoveOn and Brave New Films responded by suing Viacom under section 512(f) of the DMCA [6] for knowing, material misrepresentation of its claim of copyright infringement with regard to the video. The suit was based on the argument that the video was so clearly a fair use that Viacom could not have asserted in good faith that the clip infringed its copyright. Viacom responded with a letter [8] to the lawyers for MoveOn and Brave New Films, indicating that Viacom could not confirm sending the takedown notice and stating that Viacom had "no problem with your client's continued use of [the video] on its website or on YouTube."

That did not completely satisfy MoveOn and Brave New Films, and further negotiations took place between the lawyers. Eventually, Viacom agreed to adopt new policies enabling YouTube users to complain directly to Viacom about mistaken takedown notices and affirming the company's respect for fair use of its copyrighted materials. MoveOn and Brave New Films then dismissed the suit.