“Here Comes Another Bubble” Takedown!
So, it turns out YouTube actually can protect copyright!
In this case, that’s too bad, since the video-sharing service just took down the very popular music video parody called “Here Comes Another Bubble,” by San Francisco’s Richter Scales, which we first posted here and which has taken off like wildfire around the Web.
The video opens, in fact, with a BoomTown video of an interview with Facebook investor Peter Thiel, who talks about there not being a bubble (of course there is, Pete!).
But we did not mind the use of a snippet of it without permission, since it seemed like fair use in a parody.
So what’s the problem? Well, someone sent YouTube a take-down request and the company honored it without contacting the Richter Scales first.
Here’s the video:
By way of background, the hysterical video is sung to the tune of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and perfectly nails the Web 2.0 mania better than pretty much everyone in Silicon Valley.
Comments
I liked the video, too, BUT…he did use photos and content without giving attribution. Fair use doesn’t mean you can use content without attribution, at a minimum.
Posted by Shelley Powers at December 11th, 2007 at 6:56 pmYes, but they’re singers, so give them a break, I say.
Posted by Kara Swisher at December 11th, 2007 at 10:31 pmYou can still see the video live on Metacafe: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/.....er_bubble/
Posted by Yaniv Copeliovitch at December 12th, 2007 at 2:18 am(Hi Shelley. Fancy seeing you here. Small world.) I thought the video was hilarious. But I’ll add, having seen many lame reaches from the copyfight community for an expansion of fair use, this is a case where something undeniably creative was nipped by an over-reactive Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
What’s rather unsettling is that the complainant remans anonymous. Well, that’s DMCA for ya.
Posted by Jon Garfunkel at December 13th, 2007 at 6:39 pm“Fair use doesn’t mean you can use content without attribution, at a minimum.”
Actually, attribution is not necessary for fair use. They’re two separate issues. In this case, I think that the Richter Scales may be guilty of plagiarism (although I wouldn’t go there in this context), but not of copyright infringement. Too bad the video was taken down at YouTube.
Posted by Freya Anderson at December 28th, 2007 at 2:35 pm