The below emails were exchanged with an in-house attorney at Viacom. The baselessness and absurdity of the rationale behind their decision to remove an innocuous video on YouTube cannot be over-emphasized, and may be indicative of an unsavory agenda of some wayward employees at Viacom or YouTube (which is owned by Google), who may be linked with the extensive cover-up efforts in
MorganStanleyGate.
As noted below, I was tipped off this ridiculous decision was to be used as a precedent and basis to disable ALL of my videos on YouTube, most of which are being used in my activism efforts to resolve and reverse the effects of
MorganStanleyGate in
New York and
North Carolina.
-----Original Message-----
From: Spencer C. Young <spencercyoung@aol.com>
To: Michael.Housley <Michael.Housley@viacom.com>
Cc: directors <directors@google.com>; michael.fricklas <michael.fricklas@viacom.com>; copyright <copyright@youtube.com>; paul <paul@huffingtonpost.com>; shahien <shahien@huffingtonpost.com>; LeatherSleeves <LeatherSleeves@gmail.com>; investor.relations <investor.relations@viacom.com>; jcpenner <jcpenner@google.com>; nonmanagementdirectors <nonmanagementdirectors@viacom.com>; nnuciforo <nnuciforo@caa.com>
Sent: Mon, Feb 14, 2011 4:22 am
Subject: I Respectfully Request a Response (To Rule Out Viacom's Involvement in MorganStanleyGate)
To: Michael Housley -- Legal Dept. - Viacom International
___________________________________________
I never received a response to my January 19 e-mail (see below), and by so doing, you are needlessly escalating a pedestrian matter, predicated on baseless and irrational assertions, and thereby potentially implicating Viacom in a scandal it will want no part of. And by ignoring the seriousness of this, you are underestimating my resolve, and you would appear oddly culpable in an association with criminal activities including: fraud, racketeering, extortion, sabotage, corruption, and other unlawful abuses.
This is very simple to resolve -- you need to do one of the two things:
(1) Reinstate my YouTube video featuring Demetri Martin; or
(2) Remove the other 1,330 "unauthorized" Demetri Martin Youtube videos that have been up and operational for three years or more and have had 157 million hits (evidence attached with other relevant documents), and not one of them is being used in activism cause, which is one of the specific exclusions allowed under copyright law.
As you well know, the subject video is being used in an activism initiative, yet you disabled it within a few hours of upload (on New Year's Eve no less) and removed it altogether in less than 24 hours, after this video received only a few "hits" (or views). Such bombastic irrationality indicates a hidden agenda -- unfortunately yours may be especially unsavory -- please demonstrate by your actions that this is not the case, and simply reinstate the subject video on YouTube.
Otherwise, by removing the 1,330 Demetri Martin video clips, I surmise you will experience a profound uproar from the YouTube community, as well as those at Viacom who understand the value of this common sense form of free advertising.
And ignoring this is NOT an option, for I was tipped off that this absurd action was to be used as a cited precedent to disable ALL of my videos on YouTube, in order to assist in the cover-up of the MorganStanleyGate scandal, (as these videos will play a role in resolving this scandal).
I'll call you later this afternoon, so that we may amicably wrap this up -- but please know that I will require a written response (via email) on the final resolution of this matter.
Sincerely,
Spencer
-----Original Message-----
From: Spencer C. Young
To: Michael.Housley
Cc: Google Chief Legal Officer, Viacom Chief Legal Officer, Google Board of Directors, Demetri Martin, Demetri Martin's Agent, Viacom Board of Directors, Google's Director of Investor Relations, Viacom's Director of Investor Relations, Google's Copyright Dept., NBC News
Bcc: Selected national news reporters
Sent: Wed, Jan 19, 2011 6:03 pm
Subject: Clip of Comedy Central's "Important Things with Demetri Martin"
To: Michael Housley -- Viacom International
___________________________________________
Michael --
Thank you for your response; however, you skirted the most important points raised -- to wit:
(1) the precedent set by the 1,330 instances of "unauthorized" Demetri Martin video clips on You Tube;
(2) of these "infractions", 242 video clips are DIRECT recordings of his Viacom Comedy Central broadcasts;
(3) of these 242 clips, many have had over 1,000,000 views, and some have been fully operational on YouTube for 3 years -- what happened to your automated monitoring system in those instances?
(4) You haven't addressed the "fair use" exclusion in copyright law, the parameters of which the video clip in question ABSOLUTELY qualifies for -- and its qualifications far exceed ANY of the aforementioned 242 clips, for as you observed first hand, it was utilized for instructional purposes in an educational self-help blog, which has links to 11 affiliated sites all of which are activist related and each serve a specific purpose in the resolution of the MorganStanleyGate scandal, which is about to blow wide open. In locking horns with me, am I to surmise Viacom supports criminal activities such as bank foreclosure fraud, racketeering, extortion, sabotage, corruption and assassinations? Please visit http://TWSYF.com for more on this.
5) You also haven't addressed the most common sense oriented point of all: none of the aforesaid 242 video clips were modified to provide attribution to the artist, nor the producer -- while my video clip was modified to specifically ADVERTISE Demetri's show on Comedy Central -- that's called free advertising. You don't need a business degree to realize Viacom benefits from this, and they are certainly not damaged in any way. Moreover, taking into account the time expended to challenge an innocuous video that received 2 views is patently absurd from an economic vantage point.
So then why am I doing so? I covered that in my prior communique . . . and if you haven't done so (it doesn't appear you have), you should read it (especially the attachments). But realize this, you've already stepped into "trap" with BOTH feet, and in so doing, you provided far more ammunition than I ever expected. So if you wish to defend an indefensible position, so be it . . . for doing so only inures to my benefit, and may end up implicating Viacom in a scandal it will want no part of, while further confirming I'm onto something big. Either way, in Wall St. parlance, "I'm hedged"
The ball's in your court . . . and in responding, please operate within the realm of the truth and rationality because its clear you failed to do so in your prior transmittal (reproduced below). One last point, the video which aptly conveys why I will be unrelenting in this otherwise pedestrian matter is found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZvJ06rjbl0. And be sure to copy those I've included here -- I'll take care of forwarding your response to the news organizations and others who have been blind copied. Most importantly, thank you for helping me get the word out on MorganStanleyGate.
Many thanks,
Spencer
P.S. Is it merely coincidental you are located only a block away from Morgan Stanley's headquarters?
From: "Housley, Michael"
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:50:49 -0500
Subject: Clip of Comedy Central's "Important Things with Demetri Martin"
Hello Mr. Young,
Your email concerning the following YouTube video was forwarded to my attention.
Our records indicate that this video was blocked by YouTube's automated filter because the video matched content from Comedy Central's "Important Things with Demetri Martin".
Viacom has a strong interest in protecting its intellectual property rights. We do so through ongoing enforcement efforts and by making our content accessible across a variety of authorized platforms.
We note that your WordPress blog (http://spencercyoung.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/430/) is using an unauthorized embedded player to host the same video content. This content is available for authorized embedding via ComedyCentral.com. For your convenience, the URL and embed code are provided below. You should replace your unauthorized video with the authorized player to avoid further takedown notices.
Please feel free to reach me if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Michael Housley
Manager -- Legal Dept.
Viacom, Inc.
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
Authorized Embed Code:
<table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='360' height='353'><tbody><tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/important_things/index.jhtml'>Important Things with Demetri Martin</a></td><td style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;'></td></tr><tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=269330&title=lines-conference-call'>Lines - Conference Call</a></td></tr><tr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'><td colspan='2' style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:360px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'><a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/'>www.comedycentral.com</a></td></tr><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><embed style='display:block' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:269330' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed></td></tr><tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.jokes.com/funny/'>Funny Jokes</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/sunny/index.jhtml'>It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia</a></td><td style='padding:3px; w
