Viacom slammed for pulling VH-1 YouTube clip

A man who posted a VH-1 clip featuring his own video has had it removed from YouTube because of copyright infringement, even though the TV station did not ask his permission before airing his video on television.

Friends of Christopher Knight's saw the campaign advert for the board of education in Rockingham County played on VH-1's Web Junk 2.0 show, after he had posted it to his YouTube account.

Knight said that when he originally the saw the broadcast he was "laughing pretty hard" and he posted the VH-1 clip featuring his video on YouTube.

"I was quite aware that they were using my own not-for-profit work for commercial purposes and that they should have contacted me," he said on his Knight Shift blog.

"It was just nice to see something that I had worked on getting seen and appreciated by a lot more people than what I had intended for a local audience. "

However, Knight's laughter turned to anger when the YouTube clip was pulled this week at the insistence of VH-1 owner Viacom.

"Multimedia giant Viacom is claiming that I have violated its copyright by posting on YouTube a segment from its VH1 show Web Junk 2.0, which VH1 produced - without permission - from a video that I had originally created," said Knight.

YouTube emailed Knight telling him that the video had been removed "as a result of a third-party notification by Viacom International Inc claiming that this material is infringing".

Knight confirmed that "at no time prior to the broadcast of this show was I contacted by VH1 or its parent company Viacom. At this time, I've received no communication from Viacom whatsoever about this."

Knight has promised to fight the ruling by appealing to YouTube and has asked for legal help.

"Viacom is penalising me for using my own original material, which they used without permission to begin with," he said.