Will Comedians Take Stand-Up to Stand?

Wednesday, August 15, 2007 | Pew Internet Posts

In what's promising to be one of the more entertaining intellectual property court hearings to date, comedians Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart have been requested as witnesses in the Viacom vs. YouTube case.

While Viacom claims that YouTube has profited from users' infringing activity on the site, YouTube is hoping to show that the plaintiffs have benefited from the promotional power of online video.

Given that comedy and humorous content is one of the most popular genres of online video, it's fitting that this case would want to hold up Colbert and Stewart as examples.

Yet, it begs the question: Will anyone be able to take this case seriously if these two take the stand? As Ellen Lee quips on the SFGate blog, "Will Colbert offer some truthiness in YouTube testimony?"

Posted by Mary Madden at 11:49 AM | Link to This Entry

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