Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Viacom Grabs a Big Legal Gun for Its Next YouTube Fight

Viacom, which got roughed up quite badly in the last round of its YouTube copyright fight, has called in reinforcements. The cable giant has hired legal heavyweight Theodore Olson to help it appeal last spring’s federal court decision, which went entirely in Google’s favor. Olson’s long list of credentials include a three-year stint as George W. Bush’s top attorney, a job that included arguing lots of cases in front of the Supreme Court. Which is where Viacom/Google could eventually land.

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The problem with the Billionaire Savior phase of the newspaper collapse has always been that billionaires don’t tend to like the kind of authority-questioning journalism that upsets the status quo.

— Ryan Chittum, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review about the promise of Pierre Omidyar’s new media venture with Glenn Greenwald