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Viacom Sets Jon Stewart Free, Online

Providing some relief after the Steve Ballmer bombast, mild-mannered Philippe Dauman delivered his news and comments like an expert fencer today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. While my colleague Antone Gonsalves covers Dauman's cut-and-thrust on Google's copyright plans, I'll give you the entertainment news: Viacom is posting the complete history of The Daily Show online, for free, for anyone to port to their own sites as they see fit.

Live as of Noon ET today, the new Daily Show Web site features nearly the entire video archive of the decade-old show, including 16,000 clips of Jon Stewart, Lewis Black's "Back in Black," Stephen Colbert's "This Week in God," and the show's other elements. (The mostly forgettable pre-Stewart era of the show, with host Craig Kilborn, will be available next year, Viacom says.)

Previously, episodes have been available illicitly on YouTube and on Apple's iTunes for paid download. Viacom sued YouTube owner Google earlier this year for $1 billion, alleging copyright infringement on a range of Viacom music and TV content.

This deal is important not only for Jon Stewart fans but for anyone interested in the evolution of copyright and access to original TV, movie and audio programming online. Viacom is part of an industry consortium preparing to announce a broad agreement on copyright protection in new media.

The online Daily Show, said Dauman, "fits in with our overall strategy to engage consumers directly" over the Internet with dozens of different sites devoted to particular Viacom programming and music. Dauman calls this trend "fragmentation," as fans find their way to specialized sites and brands with links to the overall Viacom universe. "We invented fragmentation in the cable world, with many specialized networks, and we're seeing this fragmentation as we go forward on the Internet."

The same free access to online video and audio will be "rolled out across all our properties and all our brands," said Dauman.

Viacom is suing the illegal distribution vehicle of pirated content, Google/YouTube, while providing the actual users with what they want: unlimited access to the personalities and the comedy they enjoy. Contrast this strategy to the recording industry, which has chosen to go after individual consumers of pirated music including single mothers.

"We believe in following the consumer," said Dauman, who was interviewed by business journalist and author John Heilemann. "Our core business is creating great content, building great brands, and having them travel across all platforms that exist across the world."

Touché.

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