An Open Letter to Comedy Central and Viacom
We love the Daily Show on VideoSift. The Comedy Central video embeds have been consistently some of the most popular voted content here.
So, it’s with a lot of regret - after an extensive community discussion- that we have decided to ban the submission of all Comedy Central videos.
The Internet does not respect national borders and your recent decision to block access to non-US viewers means that 30% of the members on VideoSift see a frozen screen when trying to view content from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, South Park and other CC programs.
I’m sure you have very good reasons for taking this action- exclusive distribution deals with overseas TV networks, advertisements not meant to be globally broadcast etc. - but we ask you to reconsider your decision – and not just for the obvious reasons.
Programs like the Daily Show do more to create goodwill toward the US than the current US administration has ever done.
If the Daily Show can relentlessly skewer its nation’s politicians without fear of retribution- it gives hope to those living under despotic regimes that democracy isn't quite dead in the US.
Those of us living overseas see Jon Stewart as a face of America- and we like an America that is self-deprecating and willing to highlight her many mistakes. It makes it so much easier to forgive that way.
Of course, you own the content, and who are we to tell you how it should be distributed? Comedy Central has no obligation to send a political message to the rest of the world.
But there is another reason to allow international viewing that has more commercial appeal. When you block dependable access to your videos, you are driving people to illicit sources for their favorite content. (YouTube, Bittorrent etc.) We would try to monitor contraband submissions on our site, but for you, policing this across the Internet will be like trying to drain the ocean with a teaspoon.
Comedy Central, please think globally and give us our Daily Show!
Respectfully yours,
The Rest of the World
PS. While you’re at it – can you prevent your videos from “expiring” after a few weeks?
Update:
Please help us spread the word. Digg and Reddit
So, it’s with a lot of regret - after an extensive community discussion- that we have decided to ban the submission of all Comedy Central videos.
The Internet does not respect national borders and your recent decision to block access to non-US viewers means that 30% of the members on VideoSift see a frozen screen when trying to view content from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, South Park and other CC programs.
I’m sure you have very good reasons for taking this action- exclusive distribution deals with overseas TV networks, advertisements not meant to be globally broadcast etc. - but we ask you to reconsider your decision – and not just for the obvious reasons.
Programs like the Daily Show do more to create goodwill toward the US than the current US administration has ever done.
If the Daily Show can relentlessly skewer its nation’s politicians without fear of retribution- it gives hope to those living under despotic regimes that democracy isn't quite dead in the US.
Those of us living overseas see Jon Stewart as a face of America- and we like an America that is self-deprecating and willing to highlight her many mistakes. It makes it so much easier to forgive that way.
Of course, you own the content, and who are we to tell you how it should be distributed? Comedy Central has no obligation to send a political message to the rest of the world.
But there is another reason to allow international viewing that has more commercial appeal. When you block dependable access to your videos, you are driving people to illicit sources for their favorite content. (YouTube, Bittorrent etc.) We would try to monitor contraband submissions on our site, but for you, policing this across the Internet will be like trying to drain the ocean with a teaspoon.
Comedy Central, please think globally and give us our Daily Show!
Respectfully yours,
The Rest of the World
PS. While you’re at it – can you prevent your videos from “expiring” after a few weeks?
Update:
Please help us spread the word. Digg and Reddit
46 Comments
maatcThats awesome! Just tried to DIGG it and dag apparently already put it up.
http://digg.com/business_finance/An_Open_Letter_to_Comedy_Central_and_Viacom
Good work, lets spread the word!
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
And with that, I'm off to bed. Definitely past my bedtime for a Monday night in Australia.
K0MMIEI "Digg" it Dag.
antDugg, but only four votes.
I sent it to Blue's News too.
twiddlesVery well done Dag a *quality submission!
siftbotAwarding dag with one star point for this contribution to Sift Talk - declared quality by twiddles.
maatcdugg it, reddit, bookmarked it on de.licio.us, twittered the digg and reddit links, what else is there? this needs to be on all the frontpages!
choggieDag, could you make sure they get my farewell salutation???
http://www.videosift.com/video/Farewell-Comedy-Central
And for alll you CC employees, who may be reading this, just to let you know, this dissenting voice comes not through the mouth of some rabid neo-con......comes from someone who thinks the writers on the Daily Show and Bill Maher, are frikkin' hack, coke-freaks, and that there are more effective ways, than regurgitated, sophomoric, sarcasm, to editorialize comedically....
maatcJust edited the Wikipedia entry for Criticism for Comedy Central
Also updated "Accepted Videos" section of the Videosift Wikipedia entry
winkler1Well put!
ZifnabVery well said.
H0Ju says...I know I'm nit-picking, but could you at least spell Jon Stewart's name right, otherwise it seems like you don't even follow the show.
Everything else is the way it's meant to be. Thanks for sticking up for us foreigners.
dotdudeDugg and liked!
darkrowanI'll digg/reddit later (I don't have accounts there, surprisingly) I have put an attempt to Fark it. I'll try Slashdot's firehose here in a bit.
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
Doh. Thanks Hoju - changed spelling of Jon.
FedquipThanks for the open letter Dag. I got stupidly excited last month when Viacom launched thedailyshow.com and offered every single clip for free online.
Turns out party only lasted a couple weeks as the Daily Show website is now also blocked for International viewers.
I thought only countries like Iran and China blocked of the outside world on the Internet? Ah well, I guess it shouldn't surprise us that America can now be put in the same category...Tip of the berg?
rbar*quality letter! I even have Digg and Reddit logins now.
siftbotInvocations (quality) cannot be called by rbar because rbar is not privileged - sorry.
mlxdefinitely *quality
siftbotdag has already been awarded a star point for this post - ignoring quality request by mlx.
MarineGunrockI don't know if you just haven't gotten around to it yet, but I'm still seeing the little CC logo tiles on the side bar and on the submission screen.
loorisgg dag
antBlue's News posted my link to this. =)
FjnbkMaybe you should tell them exactly how many members we have, and more importantly, how many don't live in the U.S.
JAPRawesome post, dag
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
>> Maybe you should tell them exactly how many members we have
We would tell them how many visitors we have on a monthly basis, but we're about to reach a milestone and we're saving that for a Big Announcement™
oxdottirThank you for the articulate and reasonable letter. How could they resist?
maatc>> We would tell them how many visitors we have on a monthly basis, but we're about to reach a milestone and we're saving that for a Big Announcement™
This is what I would like to hear:
VideoSift has now reached 100% coverage with every creature on the planet now using the site. From the huge profits of last quarter VideoSift bids to take over Viacom. Also announcing: The VideoSift-Phone (unlocked)
I am not too far off, no?
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
^ Hey, how did you get a copy of our Powerpoint presentation?
maatc^ I is in Ur Prezentationz, stealing your announzements™
Looks like this story is currently #1 for "Hot in Business & Finance" on Digg (with 49 votes).
If you haven´t dugg it yet, make sure to do and get this all the way to the front page.
karaidlDoes the big announcement involve getting naked? If it doesn't, do you mind if I still do that?
qualmTerse, clear and well-written.
MINKDear Viacom,
Do what the fuck you want with material you created and paid for, I couldn't give a shit.
As someone who also creates and pays for entertainment, I totally respect your right to do whatever you like with it, and I see no reason why you have to give it away for free to the entire world just because the internet exists and is full of hippies.
btw, MTV Baltic sucks ASS, you really fucked that one up didn't you. I hope you lose all your money and stop making programs entirely.
Sincerely,
MINK
loorisMTV Baltic? Wtf? I thought the three languages were different enough, aren't they?
Or it exists but broadcasts localized in each country?
MINK^if you call translating the words "pimp my ride" 3 times "localisation" then yes.
loorislal!
rickegeeI find this little piece of comic protectionism to be both quaint and justified. If we export all of our comedy along with all of our bad Bruce Willis action films, then who will ever visit the great America again? Aussies need incentives, too.
On a less cheeky note, I wonder how much of this is tied up in the entertainment writers' strike that is taking place right now? If comedy writers accrue benefits in the form of residuals, there could indeed be a very serious consequence to freely streaming all of their (quasi-intellectual) property so that your random dot.ru can zip it and burn it onto pirated CDs and DVDs.
I do like the message, but there is more going on here than simple isolationism, I fear.
MINKI’m sure you have very good reasons for taking this action- exclusive distribution deals with overseas TV networks, advertisements not meant to be globally broadcast etc.
...
Of course, you own the content, and who are we to tell you how it should be distributed? Comedy Central has no obligation to send a political message to the rest of the world.
foot. self. shot in.
antBummer. Only 60 votes on Digg. It did NOT get popular to front page.
MINK...waits for the Dear Leader to respond...
EklekIf only CC clips were CC (creative commons) licenced..
MINK^how would that make a difference? which cc license are you talking about?
where's dag gone?
9604To the producers of Comedy Central:What I am about to say is not a comment but a reccomendation. Through the years of 1988-1994(im guessing),there was a hit t.v. series called Kids in the Hall.I reccomend that you put it back on your network because if you do,then more people will probably watch your network more often.Do me a favor and just think about it.If you do put the show back on, I am sure that I would watch Comedy Central more than I do now and I will talk friends also into watching your network.
fizziksperhaps the instructions for getting embed codes should be updated to link to this page. It still has instructions on getting CC embed codes:
http://www.videosift.com/video_hosts.php
MycroftHomlzOpps...I didn't know this. I missed this discussion. Should I kill my newly sifted CC embeds?
jwrayMind putting the Comedy Central ban in the FAQ?
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.