Christopher Knight (filmmaker)

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For other persons named Christopher Knight, see Christopher Knight (disambiguation).
Christopher Knight from his first campaign commercial for Rockingham County (North Carolina) Board of Education in 2006
Christopher Knight from his first campaign commercial for Rockingham County (North Carolina) Board of Education in 2006

Robert Christopher Knight is a writer, filmmaker, and blogger based in the U.S. state of North Carolina who in 2007 became an Internet phenomenon because of a video he uploaded to YouTube and a subsequent copyright infringement clash with Viacom that Knight eventually won.

Contents

[edit] The "Star Wars" school board campaign commercial

In 2006 Knight ran for one of five new at-large seats on the Rockingham County, North Carolina Board of Education and self-produced a series of television commercials for his campaign. Knight paid for airtime and the commercials were broadcast on WGSR Star 39 from Reidsville, North Carolina in the month leading up to the November 7 election.

The first commercial that Knight created, dubbed simply "Christopher Knight for School Board Commercial #1"[1], played off of Knight's lifelong love of the Star Wars movies. In the one-minute spot, the Death Star destroys a tiny red schoolhouse while a female voice actress describes how legislation like No Child Left Behind has turned the federal government into a "cosmic bully" that is "targeting and destroying our ability to best teach our children." The second half of the commercial features Knight wielding a blue-bladed lightsaber, describing how he is a "fiscal conservative" who wants more local control over the county's schools. The commercial ends with Knight twirling the lightsaber in a flourish as he vows "to defend a bright and shining future for the children of Rockingham County."

Knight uploaded the commercial to YouTube, purportedly doing so only because he wanted to share his work with friends and family outside of Rockingham County. It soon became noticed by a larger audience in spite of the bland title that Knight gave his video. In the weeks before the election it was featured in every major newspaper in the state of North Carolina, was shown on the Fox News Channel and was featured in The New York Times[2]. By the end of the year, the "Star Wars" school board ad had aroused the attention of Edutopia, the magazine of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, which declared Knight's commercial to be the "Best Campaign Ad Ever!"[3].

Knight aired two more commercials before the election. He failed to win a seat but with 4,648 votes he came in 8th place out of 16 candidates who ran (the largest slate for a single race in Rockingham County history).

Over the next several months Knight's commercial was screened at the American Film Institute, and was featured on the Heritage Foundation website[4] and in numerous other media outlets.

[edit] The VH1/Viacom/YouTube copyright infringement claim

In July of 2007 the television program Web Junk 20 on VH1 began airing a special presentation titled "Animals and Other Crap". The show, which highlights funny and unusual video clips found on the Internet, featured Knight's first school board commercial along with commentary by host Aries Spears. Knight later said that no one from the network had approached him about using his commercial for a for-profit broadcast or had even told him that it would be aired by the network. However, Knight also said that he thought that the show was so good and Spears's commentary to be so witty, that he didn't mind that VH1 used it at all.

As he had done with his original commercial, Knight uploaded the Web Junk 20 segment on YouTube so that he could share it with friends

On August 29, 2007, Knight received an e-mail from YouTube notifying him that his video of the Web Junk 20 clip had been taken down at the insistence of VH1's parent company Viacom. The reason, Viacom gave, was that Knight's use of the clip was copyright infringement and violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Upon being presented with the claim, YouTube had no choice but to pull it per DMCA mandate.

Condemning Viacom's actions as "chutzpah", Knight elaborated that "Viacom used my video without permission on their commercial television show, and now says that I am infringing on THEIR copyright for showing the clip of the work that Viacom made in violation of my own copyright!" He also added that "Folks, this is, as we say down here in the south, 'bass-ackwards'." Knight vowed to fight to have the clip restored, and publicly renounced any intent to pursue monetary damages against Viacom.

The central issue was whether posting the Web Junk 20 clip to YouTube constituted a legitimate example of fair use. Knight contended that per the Copyright Act of 1976, his uploading of the Web Junk 20 clip featuring his commercial satisfied the four criteria and thus was "absolutely" fair use. Knight further claimed that VH1's segment was a derivative work of his own, since the Web Junk 20 clip was based on Knight's original commercial and could not have existed without it. Viacom countered that the Web Junk 20 clip was indeed its own copyrighted material, acknowledging that although it used the commercial that Knight had produced himself, that VH1 had added Aries Spears's image and commentary. Viacom asserted that this was enough to make the entire content of the Web Junk 20 clip, including use of Knight's commercial, their own material protected under copyright.

Following guidelines on YouTube's site, Knight filed filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act counter-notification claim later on the same day that he had been told that the video had been taken down. Per the DMCA, Viacom was legally bound to take one of two options: to take Knight to court and file a lawsuit against him for copyright infringement, or to let the video be restored on YouTube. After Knight posted about his situation with Viacom on his blog, the story was reported by Slashdot and quickly became a hot topic of discussion, particularly among YouTube users.

Shortly after Knight filed the DMCA counter-claim, the Electronic Frontier Foundation took up the case on Knight's behalf.

On September 11, 2007, Viacom relented and notified YouTube to reinstate Knight's clip of Web Junk 20 featuring his campaign commercial.

The incident has since been referenced in several other stories regarding YouTube and supposed cases of copyright infringement, including that of the Lenz family's lawsuit against Universal[5] regarding a clip they had posted onto YouTube that included several seconds of a song by musical artist Prince.

Two months after Viacom yielded and allowed the Web Junk 20 clip to be restored, Knight was further honored when E! Entertainment Television's show The Soup hosted by Joel McHale also featured his commercial. Soon afterward Knight posted this clip on YouTube also, but only after taking measures to include citation and his own thoughts about McHale's commentary so as to avoid any further problems such as those he encountered with Viacom.

[edit] Filmmaking

Knight co-founded KWerky Productions with longtime collaborator Ed Woody in 2004.

In addition to his television commercials, Knight has made Forcery (his first film, a George Lucas-focused parody of Misery). Forcery was eventually seen and praised by "Weird Al" Yankovic[6].

Knight has also made Schrodinger's Bedroom, an original comedy based on the quantum physics paradox known as Schrodinger's cat. He has produced several other shorts for local television.

The KWerky Productions duo is presently working on a full length film from a script that Knight has written.

Knight is self-employed as a freelance video producer.

[edit] Petitioning for the Transformers score

Ironically at the same time that Knight was fighting VH1 and Viacom, he was also leading a crusade in support of a CD release of the orchestral soundtrack that Steve Jablonsky composed for the 2007 motion picture Transformers released by Paramount, another Viacom property. Knight started an online petition that garnered several thousands of signatures, which was later officially recognized by Warner Bros. Records, though whether the petition played a significant part in the album's release is questionable since Warner Bros. executives had long maintained that a CD would be forthcoming.

Transformers: The Score was released on October 9, 2007.

[edit] Other activities involving Star Wars

Knight has displayed his eager affection for the Star Wars movies throughout much of his life. He was a staff member of TheForce.net. It was during his time there that he used the site to propose to his wife Lisa. Knight also researched and wrote a widely-cited examination of midi-chlorians[7].

In the summer of 2007 Knight, along with several parents and students in the Rockingham County Schools System, fought a mandatory school uniforms measure that would have affected students at two Reidsville, North Carolina schools. Knight attended the July 2007 meeting and protested by addressing the board while dressed in full Jedi Knight costume. Later that night the board rescinded its earlier vote and the uniforms measure was defeated.

[edit] Personal

Knight is married, with no children as of this writing. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in History from Elon University. Knight is an Eagle Scout and is an assistant scoutmaster with the Boy Scouts of America in addition to being a member of the Order of the Arrow.

Knight has often described himself as a Christian who is very disillusioned with modern Christianity. He is especially disdainful of many so-called "conservative Christians", including George W. Bush, James Dobson, and Pat Robertson who are in his view more obsessed with gaining earthly power than seeking after Jesus Christ. Politically, Knight refuses to consider himself as absolutely either "conservative" or "liberal".

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ YouTube and WGSR Star 39: Christopher Knight for School Board TV Commercial #1, October 2006
  2. ^ "The New York Times: Local Issues Mirror National Ones, but the Special Effects Occasionally Stand Alone, November 6 2006"
  3. ^ "Edutopia: Best Campaign Ad Ever!"
  4. ^ "The Heritage Foundation: School Board Jedi, July 9 2007"
  5. ^ "ABC News: The Home Video Prince Doesn't Want You to See, October 26 2007"
  6. ^ The Knight Shift: 'Weird Al' Yankovic watched Forcery... and he liked it!! June 8 2005"
  7. ^ TheForce.net: "Midi-Chlorians: Physiology, Physics, and the Force"

[edit] External links