Warner Music Takes Down Popular Star Wars Acapella Video

from the but-why? dept

Warner Music Group sure does have a way of shooting itself in the foot repeatedly these days. The company, which keeps claiming that it's not as bad as the public makes it out to be, sure is working hard to suggest otherwise. You may recall that, beyond trying to institute a music tax (which is a bad idea) and suing any innovative startup that has anything to do with music, the company is also in the middle of a dispute with YouTube over how much money Google should pay Warner Music for any uploaded video that includes any bit of Warner Music Group music. This has served to piss off some of Warner's own musicians, and now it's pissing off fans as well -- whose anger (warning: that video is not even remotely safe for work if your speakers are turned on) is getting directed right back at Warner Music.

The latest, as sent in by Rose M. Welch, is that Warner appears to have taken down a super popular video of one guy, Corey Vidal, singing all parts to an amusing 4-part acappella tribute to Star Wars, to the tune of a number of different John Williams' songs. The actual acappella song is sung by a group called Moosebutter (who is not signed to Warner Music) and Corey's video of their song was done with Moosebutter's full support. You can still see Corey's video on other sites of course:

It's worth noting that this is not Corey's first battle with Warner Music. Last year, he apparently put up a video of him dancing to a short segment from a new song from Madonna... before the song was actually released. Warner Music had the video taken down -- even though Madonna herself apparently put up her own video saying she supported such fan-made videos. Either way, Corey filed a counternotice on the takedown, and since Warner Music failed to respond, the video was put back up.

It's not at all clear if this new takedown is related to the last one, but it's extremely difficult to see how Warner Music has the slightest claim here. The song is written and performed by Moosebutter, while the video was done by Corey, and while the song does use some melodies from John Williams songs, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone familiar with copyright law (other than, of course, entertainment industry IP lawyers) who doesn't think the song is pretty clear fair use. It's transformative, not derivative. It's a parody. It doesn't harm the commercial value of the original works. Moosebutter is also confused as to why it was just Corey's video taken down, when many others use the song as well. It's as if Warner Music purposely targeted the most popular viral video with this song in it. In fact, I'd argue the only harm done to the commercial value of Warner Music was done by Warner Music itself in having this video taken down. In the meantime, I've sent a note to the folks at Warner Music to get a comment... and will add it here should they ever reply. Update: We got an official "no comment." Glad they're really a part of the "conversation."

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Viral Weezer Video Not Allowed To Be Viral

from the not-so-brilliant dept

The band Weezer has been getting a lot of buzz for its latest video for the song Pork and Beans, which takes a bunch of viral video "YouTube stars" and has them reprising their roles in its own video. Others have done similar things, so perhaps it's not that unique. However, a Techdirt reader named Mike noticed something quite odd about the Weezer video on YouTube. For a supposedly "viral" video -- Weezer or Universal Music has disabled the ability to embed the video in other sites (see update below). Embedding these kinds of videos, of course, is exactly how they go viral. Specifically disabling that feature on a video that's entirely based on viral videos seems backwards.

It's difficult to believe that Weezer did this themselves -- as the band has long been seen as embracing the internet and new technologies and distribution means. Hell, just doing this type of video shows how connected to the internet scene they are. So it makes you wonder if it was the band's label, Universal Music, that has stopped the embedding. If they're going to do this, why not follow Viacom's footsteps and ask the video to be taken down completely.

Update: Aha! Within hours of us posting this, the embed feature was re-enabled. No explanation as to what happened. Someone from Weezer or Universal care to comment?

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Viacom Demands YouTube Take Down Viral Video Made By Viacom

from the read-that-again dept

We know that Viacom really dislikes YouTube, but it seems to have taken that hatred a bit beyond reasonable (assuming you don't already consider its $1 billion lawsuit unreasonable). For the MTV Movie Awards (MTV being a Viacom property), Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. made a "spoof" viral video to try to get attention for their upcoming comedy movie, Tropic Thunder. The clip was well done, and clearly recognized all the key ingredients to make a viral video a winner. So what happens with a viral video? Well, it gets sent around and, most likely, gets placed on YouTube.

So, what does Viacom do? Well, thanks to reader Cannen for pointing out the news that Viacom sent a takedown notice to YouTube. MIT's YouTomb project is tracking the takedown. It makes you wonder if Viacom is so blinded by its hatred of YouTube that it missed the point of a viral video being that it be allowed to be... you know... viral.

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