Christopher Knight created a video of himself and posted it on YouTube. Viacom found it and used it as a source video for their VH1 show, Web Junk 2.0. As Knight’s video plays in the background, host Aries Spears provides a running commentary. Knight, who was never contacted by Viacom and never granted VH1 permission to use his material, liked the derivative work enough to post it on YouTube. Yesterday, YouTube took down his video because Viacom claimed copyright infringement. Yes, that’s right. Viacom took Knight’s copyrighted work, used it on its commercial show, and then made YouTube take down the derivative work for infringing on their copyright!

Update As of September 12, YouTube has restored the video.

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