Kevin Smith Defends Video-Game Clips On YouTube

Kevin Smith has been making the talk show rounds lately. On Wednesday night, he was on the Arsenio Hall Show. On Thursday night, he was on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. During his appearance on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, Smith defended the right for people to post video-clips on YouTube and criticized YouTube's recent actions of hitting several video-game channels with copyright violation claims. "On YouTube they're starting to cull all these video-game clips," said Smith. "And I know people who built careers on taking footage and running commentary under it or reviewing it and stuff. So now YouTube's gone 'You don't have the rights to do this.' And they're starting to pull back on the freedoms of expression people have been enjoying on YouTube for awhile. Even though YouTube might be challenging the video-game clips, some video-game companies are jumping into the discussion and saying it is ok for kids to run the clips. Smith explained, "Number one, it's probably good for business for them. But number two, they're also just like, 'Let 'em have their fun. These kids, they're not hurting anyone with just clips of video games.' So I'm more concerned about that. Don't stamp down someone's creativity. Even if it's someone else's creativity with something else, other people's material. Because you make found art out of art that you find."