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Veoh Vs. Piracy: The Battle Has Just Begun
YouTube may have its first viable competitor. And just like the mega-upload site, Veoh.com is awash with pirated content just a day after going live. After more than a year in beta development mode, the Michael Eisner backed Veoh looks as if it hasn't figured out how to block copyrighted material and could face the same dogged legal battles as its predecessor.
And with no time-limit for uploads and a larger higher-quality picture than YouTube, the site is rife with pristine versions of feature films -- new, old, foreign and domestic – free for the picking.
In the last week, a Veoh member named "esther13g" posted feature-length versions of such notable independent films as "Half Nelson," "Secretary," and "Brick," with plans to publish "new episodes of 'The L Word' by Tuesdays at the latest."
But soon after The Daily Reel contacted reps at Veoh and copyright holders of "Half Nelson," the video vanished. And attempts to watch it were replaced with the following warning: "This video is no longer available due to copyright violation." As of this morning, however, "Secretary" (owned by Lionsgate) and "Brick" (owned by Universal) were still on the site along with Showtime Network's "The L Word." Will they be taken down, too, as soon as someone from those companies takes note?
From indie-horror juggernaut "The Blair Witch Project" to Hong Kong art-pop auteur Wong Kar-wai's "Days of Being Wild" to Morgan Sporlock's "Super Size Me" to an HD version of Bernarndo Bertolucci's NC-17-rated "The Dreamers" (clearly ripped from an HBO broadcast), an abundance of feature films is available for viewing – and probably shouldn't be.
In the last week, a California man who goes by the handle "geologyguy" has posted full-length versions of a number of classic films, from the 1950 version of "Cyrano de Bergerac," starring Oscar-winner Jose Ferrer, to Akira Kurosawa's Japanese masterpiece "Rashomon." Get them while you can.
But as "geologyguy" notes, there is no stopping the flow of product. "We have close to 60 Filipino films," he says in a comment. "I am also working on getting some Korean and Thai films."
If they want to stay within the bounds of current copyright laws, it looks like the Veoh team has their work cut out for them.
This is shameful and seriously erodes the market that they claim to want to serve. If you feel that piracy is not a valid means of gaining market acceptance, you should stay away from Veoh. They're just bad news.