The Goblin Shark is a fascinating — not to mention slightly freaky-looking — creature, and this is a great video of one doing it’s thing, including some good footage of it’s signature protrusible jaw. Take a look after the fold.
Last week xkcd had a strip paying homage to the Discovery Channel’s current(?) advert. Not having seen the advert, I didn’t really understand it. So, tonight I finally remembered to check out the advert on YouTube, and liked it enough to stick up here; it actually does do a good job of igniting my sense of wonder.
Plus any song that rhymes “arach-a-nids” with “giant squids” gets my vote.
Video on YouTube.
While we’re on the subject of those zany Bleimans, this is their video of the week, and my video of the … week _and a half_.
Viacom has issued a take-down-notice to a YouTube user for posting a clip of one of their TV shows that included footage from one of his other YouTube videos that they had used without his permission.
What? A big-media company stealing and being hypocritical? Say it ‘aint so!
Apparently, it is. From the horses mouth:
“So Viacom took a video that I had made for non-profit purposes and without trying to acquire my permission, used it in a for-profit broadcast. And then when I made a YouTube clip of what they did with my material, they charged me with copyright infringement and had YouTube pull the clip,” wrote Knight in a new blog posting. “Folks, this is, as we say down here in the south, ‘bass-ackwards.’”
Ars has the details.
Personally, I’d like to see Viacom screwed for this. Not because I think what they did (in using the video) was particularly evil, but to highlight the rank hypocrisy of the big-media companies, and to show how out-there their legal policies really are. Here’s what I’d do; look at all of the copyright infringement suits they’ve been involved in in the past ten years, and find the most outrageous case of claimed damages you can. Then look at the annual income of the defendant in that case, and figure out what you’d need to multiply that income by to get the damages claimed. Next multiply Viacom’s annual revenue by that same amount and apply that as a fine, with the funds going to settle any outstanding copyright violation cases, and offer financial aid to people who’ve been ruined by over-the-top MPAA/RIAA copyright cases.
Legal? No. Fair? Possibly not, but something has to be done to send a clear message to big-media that they do not own us.