Slashdot Mirror
YouTube Removes Comedy Central Clips Due to DMCA
Jeff writes "In March, an earlier Slashdot post asked if iTunes sales of the Daily Show would make it harder to share clips online. Well, apparently with the $1.65 billion YouTube acquisition by Google, the answer is now yes. Today, YouTube removed all of its Comedy Central content. Google knew this was coming but you have to wonder if YouTube will be worth that $1.65 billion on Monday. The take down request comes a year after a Wired interview where Daily Show Executive Ben Karlin encouraged viewers to download: 'If people want to take the show in various forms, I'd say go.' Maybe the New York Times Company would have been a better acquisition for Google after all."
DUH.
While Google has a pretty good track record, there have been a few flops. This may prove to be one of them.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
1) Buy YouTube
2) Wait for all of the content to be removed
3) ???
4) profit!
Guess youtube is dead then.
My (limited non lawyerly) understanding of US copyright law and the DMCA is that as long as google removes any content when requested by the copyright holder, they are safe legally (for much the same reasons Geocities or Photobucket is not legally required to activly police every upload to hosted homepages/photo albums).
Or was there a specific takedown request from comedy central?
Don't you mean "due to the basic law of copyright that the US has had for over 200 years and is embedded into the Constitution"?
I don't get what this has to do with the DMCA...I mean, I think the DMCA is as much a piece of crap as everyone else, but Comedy Central would still have the right to force YouTube to take the content down even without the DMCA. It's just a copyright law violation. Just because they "passively allowed" it for a time doesn't make it impossible for them to change their mind sometime down the road...
ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack
D'oh... The fact that Colbert could be found in so many places on YouTube was a running joke on Colbert itself, that's how integral YouTube had become. Though really, do 5-minute clips of the show threaten Comedy Central's revenue model, or help it? An iTunes purchase is never going to hit the front page of Digg, it's never going to be linked to en masse by blogs. I guess Comedy Central does post their own clips, but they seem hard to navigate through.
A search (Colbert on Youtube) brings up many clips, but only clips less than 4 mins are playable. May be they are still removing it.
I just watched a couple of South Park clips. One was brand-spankin' new, just from tonight, but the other one was quite old---and there are quite a few copies at that. Try it yourself: my search term was "south park" "steve irwin"
Sounds like they have some work left to do, if they're actually serious about doing it.
Let's see...
Youtube is a "web 2.0" site. Teenagers being able to post anything and everything generally leads to illegal activity sooner or later. Expect to see many cases like this in the future. On a positive note, at least Google is being nice and doing the right thing. A large company doing the right thing? Up until now, only in dreams and legends. Nice way to set a positive example Google. OTOH, any guesses on how much the big G's finances are going to drop?
When mad at one, try running a mile in their shoes. That way, not only do you have their shoes, but you are a mile away.
Google could just pick up Comedy Central for a fraction of the cost of YouTube, if the clips were really that important to people.
There's still plenty of stuff from there. I only searched for stuff from Mind of Mencia, but it's there, and I saw other CC stuff as well.
/. summary made it sound like it was all supposed to be gone in one go... I wouldn't be surprised if it's a somewhat gradual purging instead.
The
Dear Member:
This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Comedy Central claiming that this material is infringing:
Steve Wozniak on Colbert Report 09/28/2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSIfYgbajpk
Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to avoid future strikes against your account, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.
If you elect to send us a counter notice, to be effective it must be a written communication provided to our designated agent that includes substantially the following (please consult your legal counsel or see 17 U.S.C. Section 512(g)(3) to confirm these requirements):
(A) A physical or electronic signature of the subscriber.
(B) Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.
(C) A statement under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
(D) The subscriber's name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if the subscriberis address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that the subscriber will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.
Such written notice should be sent to our designated agent as follows:
DMCA Complaints
YouTube, Inc.
1000 Cherry Ave.
Second Floor
San Bruno, CA 94066
Email: copyright@youtube.com
Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.
Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc.
you have to wonder if YouTube will be worth that $1.65 billion on Monday. That's okay. Google stock won't be worth all that much, either.
Dog is my co-pilot.
So correct me if I'm wrong, but to download "The Daily Show" via iTunes, it costs $9.99US for up to 16 episodes. So per month, that'll add up to over $10. Maybe something around $15US/month. Now who'se the person that thought charging this much was a good idea?
I mean can you imagine the bill of using iTunes vs. Tivo? Buying the Simpsons... Family Guy... Daily Show... The News... Daily Planet... Let's see... that adds up $75/month. For 5 shows. No wonder people pirate this crap!
Oh My God, the DCMA killed Youtube! Those bastards!
Suck it Google for ruining a good thing. Google had their own video service to screw up, why'd they have to mess with YouTube. Nobody really cared about YouTube until some multi billion dollar company came around and tried to start using it for massive profit.
Virtually every link I have ever followed to there has been some clip of television that was far beyond "fair use". The whole point behind You Tube is like the point behind the original Napster; Free access to proprietary content. Remove the desired content, and it will not matter if it remains free. Charge for it what it costs to pay for rights, and it won't matter that the content is still there.
Google got had.
Dog is my co-pilot.
Looks like the YouTube guys bailed out just in time. With nothing from TV, etc there, YouTube means nothing and will die shortly.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Back to not watching any kind of TV for me.
Shiny. Let's be bad guys.
While I did watch quite a few Colben Report (and The Word, specifically) clips on YouTube, I often go there to see stuff that wouldn't otherwise be available, such as Machinima and other video-game related content. Removing propietary content would obviously lose audience, but some of the most viewed videos there (like lonelygirl or whatever her name was) got quite a few hits too.
Check out Unsealed: Whispers of Wisdom! http://unsealed.k3rnel.net It's an action-RPG about Open Sourcerers.
Comedy central is asking all viewers to stop watching their channel since well.. nobody does anyways. What idiot in their marketing department said "hey, all these people in our target demographic who don't or might not currently watch us are getting interested in our shows... lets stop that from happening!" Another wonderful example of brick and mortar media looking a gift horse in the mouth. I'm sure Jon Stewart is excited that his total viewership just dropped by 80% ovenight :-/
What's this then?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2jL3-JLHrRo
I clearly see a Comedy Central logo in the lower right...
... just go to dailymotion instead.
Up yours DMCA and comedy central!
God Be Gone
I guess this is just the start. So I guess Google paid $1.65M for lonelygirl15 and cats flushing the toilet videos. Outstanding!
No I don't, it's Comedy Central that needs YouTube not the other way around. As there's far more cable television access than broadband in the US, I imagine everyone who wants Comedy Central already has it and that's not what actally drives traffic to YouTube. What drives traffic to YouTube is interesting content you can't get anywhere else. The people who are going to YouTube are a demographic that traditional broadcasters are desperate to reach: young, wealthy trendsetters. Those kinds of people are increasingly entertaining themselves and think of the big broadcasters as greedy providers of costly, government censored and advert filled shows. If the big broadcasters want to keep selling to people, they need companies like YouTube. People will still go to YouTube to both post and find first rate entertainment, regardless of what Comedy Central does.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
...BitTorrent is where the wonderfulness is at.
:(.
http://www.mininova.org/sub/272/added
http://www.mininova.org/sub/114/added
Just wish they were RSS feeds
"May the days be aimless. Let the seasons drift. Do not advance the action according to a plan."
Viacom owns Comedy Central. Viacom is ~70% controlled by Sumner Restone. According to sourcewatch Sumner Redstone ' ' endorsed George W. Bush for re-election, saying that "the reason was simple: Republican values are what U.S. companies need. ... 'I look at the election from what's good for Viacom. I vote for what's good for Viacom. I vote, today, Viacom.'" ' '
Now over 1/3 of thesilentpatriot's videos on YouTube have been removed. Looks to me like The Man is trying to keep all this prime satire off the web to help out the 'pubs.
Other leading stories:
Someone better get a kick out of this. I spent enough time writing it.
What if you only watch the daily show and a few others? It takes a fair number of shows purchased independantly to equal a cable bill, not to mention that for many of us any cable that gets us Comedy Central is more than $55/mo...
From that standpoint it's a hell of a deal that you don't have to pay a recurring fee for something you might only use a once or twice a week!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yes it was sort of handy being able to see whole shows on YouTube. And I don't think that will actually change much in the future as people create new accounts, upload content, and it gets removed in an endless cycle where YouTube acts as a short-term cache.
For me and a lot of other people the value of YouTube is really in all the user created videos. What people have not thought about is that whlile a lot of the content is drek, with some editing some of it from various sources could actually produce some compelling video - and YouTube has the rights to everything put on the site.
As long as people keep coming to YouTube the value will hold, and it really will not change because where else are they going to go to find user-created internet video? Not Google Video!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If that's the case, what took him so long...
YouTube enforcing copyright is only useless to you. Many people go there with the primary intent of watching vlogs or other user created content. And you are a complete idiot if you thought that YouTube could get away with not removing infringing material eventually. I am sure Google aren't such complete idiots that they didn't consider that such material would be removed (and are likely negotiating to get such material back legally).
========
CINC, 4th Penguin Legion
Does anyone have a mailing address for Comedy Central? Seems they dont seem to care if anyone wants to talk to them since I've spent 10 mins on their website and can't find ANY contact information except web forms.
If anyone has an address can you post it here? I will definately be sending them a letter.
When I search for "colbert" on youtube, I still get 4558 results. Daily Show still yields 6046.
It would match Google's ideological slant perfectly.
Blogger puts up video on YouTube of Woz on Colbert
Blogger gets email saying the video was taken down due to DMCA
Blogger equates this with all videos from Comedy Central being taken down
Blogger alerts the uninformed, gullable, drive-by masses
YouTube is responding to complains, like they've done from the start. I got one from YouTube on behalf of Warner Brothers. Move on.
The internet with its vastly improved communications technology is doing two things at least. First, it's making the things people used to do locally under fair use a global threat to the value of the traditional distribution schemes. Secondly, the seriouslness of the threat is causing all those lawyers who thought they were protecting content with their licenses to realize it wasn't their work at all that protected content. It was the difficulty of distribution. So lawyers are being taken to the mat everywhere and they're doing what they can. In this case, I doubt it's going to have much effect. There are other sites and even on YouTube the volume of uploads would overwhelm any number of people they put in charge of looking for copyrighted content. They could moderate all video posts to deal with the traffic but it's all just a sideshow. YouTube isn't competing against another couple of large video sites with similar constraints to them. It's competing against another model...one of thousands of smaller video sites, all indexed, and rated by the community. YouTube's challenge is to demostrate that they are providing value even to those whose copyrighted content they are distributing. The happy medium may be one where best of clips are allowed but no complete works without a subscription. Guess we'll all see how it goes...
but what the heck, its not evil since google does it.
I think a more likely case is that Comedy Central files a bunch of DMCA requests, and a bunch got taken down. But a "bunch" is hardly "all." And more will be uploaded. The DMCA is a deeply flawed tool (the mandatory takedown window even if you challenge the takedown is nothing less than an infringement of the first amendment), but in this case it's a copyright infringers friend. YouTube is not legally required to police for Comedy Centrals content, only to take content down when informed. Google (YouTube's new owner) has a very slow DMCA processing system (as someone whose used it, I can confirm this). So just don't worry about it. The total amont of infringing content may go down, and older stuff might be harder to find, but there will be lots of Comedy Central on YouTube for a long time.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
I am just getting sick of this shit. The whole point of entertainment is TO FUCKING ENTERTAIN!!!!!!!!!!!
t ainers/executives/etc. have no right to be paid millions upon millions for their lack of work in society. Yes they entertain but the priority of entertainment shouldn't be as high as it is. People like scientists and educators should be getting paid a hell of a lot more than what they do now. The problem with our society is the fact that we have big business running the government. How?
If it isn't one thing, it is another and another. A lot of shows wouldn't be so popular if it weren't for downloading or watching them on the internet.
All youtube is, is another medium at which entertainers can entertain. The more people watch you, the more popular you are. I can go on and on, but this is getting old.
Can we for once look past the money and do something good for a change. Yes people have to get paid to live but they don't have to get paid what they are getting paid at, which could range in the millions per year. Actors/actresses/musicians/artists/athletes/enter
Well first off, you have campaign contributions by big corporations to the politician. These politicians get elected and now have to scratch the corporations back by putting into law like the DMCA or other bills. OR we have politicians that come from a big business background and want to maximize profits for their friends or their companies they have/had ties to. When things like the DMCA get passed it hurts innovation and it hurts society. That is why we have a format war going on. That is why we have our rights being stomped out. That is why we are slowly becoming a bunch of sheep. This is just one of many bad things to come if we don't stop this government. Pirate the shit out of everything. Say fuck you to Sony BMG, say fuck you to Microsoft, say fuck you to Universal, say fuck you to warner bros, say fuck you to news corp, say fuck you to disney, say fuck you to aol, say fuck you to DRM, say fuck you to congress, just fucking think for yourself and stop being a god damn sheep to these people. Stop buying their god damn products. Stop paying for their second rate shit. Life is too god damn short for this stupid ass crap.
I find it incredibly amusing that so many people are calling the Google/YouTube deal a bad idea. So, they're taking comedy central clips down. Big deal. Remember YouTube is not about sharing commercial clips, its about the little people publishing themselves. I think Google knows what they're doing, what with the deals with a couple major production companies made by YouTube hours before the acquisition by Google and all. There may just be a method to their madness (like protecting themselves from these ridiculous content suits). I think the coming months will prove that Google is still wicked brilliant.
One day the toilets of the world will rise up... And I'm going to nuke them.
This is also based on some other stuff I read in the other comments.
1. Whatever happened to common sense? Does viewing these clips online really hurt the show? Does it stop people from watching the show when it's on t.v.? Does it really stop people from buying episodes of the show when they wish to have a true copy of it? No. The people who are going to buy it is going to be roughly the same as before. This is simply alienating people from enjoying something that makes them happy.
2. I bet a lot of polisci professors are going to be angry that they cannot get copies of it anymore for their classes. Yes, some polisci professors do use clips from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, if I'm not mistaken.
3. Bend over America, corporate greed wants more of you.
This is clearly Rove at work again. To take the Daily Show down two weeks before the election shows that there is no end that these diabolical fiends won't take.
I would say that sites like YouTube only have value in that they provide somewhat unhindered access to media sources which would not normally be accessible after the 'live' material was gone. For inst
For instance, when Bill Clinton went batshit recently, or John Stewart had his "hurting America" speech, everyone wanted to know precisely what the honest and forward criticism was, partially because it was so atypical, but also because it was topically pertinent. It was on the news, and the'd missed it.
The Daily Show isn't news, it's satirical commentary which makes note of a news item and assumes at least a cursory knowledge of the topic at hand (ie, the actual news). It's more like Leno's opener jokes than it is news. People go to YouTUbe to watch it because it entertains them.
However, stuff like the Daily Show isn't news (by its own producers' admission); it's entertainment. Which doesn't mean it does or doesn't have value. It's just that - intended for entertainment purposes. I think that's the main reason why I've got no objection to such material being removed.
If we start seeing an absense in the news items put on YouTube, I can see there being problems, legit complaints, or financial woes at YouTube - similar to how all the pro-troops videos have disappeared from YouTube.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
lol
Slashdot: How the DMCA Protects YouTube
Let's see...
...3 ...2 ...what? The content providers have awakened? ...sike 1
O OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP* (that's the sound a website makes when it goes to domain squatter heaven)
The only things on YouTube worth watching are "did you see that last night" clips that co-workers will inform you of (gone), kids blowing up Coke bottles with Mentos, the odd decent music video (I'm sure those will be removed next), people doing stupid things with the Mortal Kombat theme song, Lisa Nova, Nobody's Watching (ok, these are usually pretty good), those other two guys who did the Mother's Day picture skit, key bumping (I'm sure someone will shut that down too), emo narcissists with webcams (please, someone find a reason to shut these kids down), movie clips (gone, for the most part), LARPing (see emos), home videos that have no context outside of someone's family, and soft porn.
Countdown to implosion...
*SCHLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I should have downloaded that "Trapped in the Closet" South Park episode while I still had the chance. Now it's officially DoublePlusUnHistory.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
Wasn't it already established that the Safe Harbor Act of the DMCA protects YouTube because you don't download copies of the videos from the site but instead watch them in their proprietary Flash-based video player? Since you aren't downloading copies and storing them for later use there is no violation.
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thezorch@gmail.com
http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
is there going to be a slashdot post everytime google removes something from youbube?
Lawyers take much too long. There is already a Comedy Central clip in today's top 10 most viewed.
http://www.youtube.com/browse?s=mp
direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT3nIi0gH20
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
I only have a few favorites on youtube, and one of them was a clip (not the entire episode) from a Daily Show about Ted Stevens thinking the internet was made of tubes. The removal of this is stupid and pointless, since I'm definantly not going to go purchased a DRMed file of the entire episode. Bah! I may have to see if I can find that day's episode on bittorrent.
--The universe will not be altered by forum threads, even those which are very wry. --Tycho Brahe (Penny Arcade)
Viacom is run by a certain kind of people that don't like taking risks when their money is involved. These types control the media, and the entire western world, there is no fighting them. It is best not to directly state who these people are, because they also control the NSA, and being responsible for all the wars of the world, I suggest it is best not to make them feel threatened whatsoever. Of course, I am talking about big-time Network Executives.
I know it's bad form to reply to myself, but uh... I'm apparently suffering from historical amnesia. In the interest of not perpetuating false information, parent should start with: Dateline, 7 Dec. 2041. I resign in shame - My office will be cleared out by tomorrow morning.
Theres is still south park on YouTube. Open up YouTube and type, 'this is not south park' and tada! Theres the whole F#@%@king movie on there!!
After the acquisition by google youtube is taking down a lot of infringing stuff. In exchange a lot of commercial advertising (stuff they get paid for to put on the frontpage) is put up.
Youtube has just become the new advertising vehicle for google.
All of you who say google made a bad deal miss the point.
I predict that over the next month gootube will be flooded with more stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=FOXNewsBlast http://www.youtube.com/user/parishilton http://www.youtube.com/user/CBS
Copy their audio, but make southpark style cartoon versions of the show
using flash or some other 'cartoon creator' kit if there is any.
Just as funny, maybe more so, but not 100% (C) either. If thats still not enough
then fake the voices your self, or use ATTs text to speech converter, so only
the content words are the same, but the audio and video is 100% yours.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
...comedy central will allow uploads.
/ message_board.jhtml?c=v&t=1268
Yeah, you're right, probably not.
Only thing I can say as an european is that I will miss greatly my daily fix of the daily show. It was pretty much the only thing which could convince me that you guys over there have not yet gone completely insane.
Here is the YoutTube thread at the DailyShow message board (subscription required):
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show
Lets spam 'em.
Google got had.
I think not. Google's plans for YouTube and are bigger than most people imagine. They now control THE internet video domain name. Nobody went to Google Video, so they changed their strategy. They will undoubtedly negotiate mutually beneficial deals with various copyright owners to host TV content. I for one will happily watch my Colbert Report on YouTube, on demand, legally, in higher def with guaranteed quality, rather than have to hunt down a torrent or wait for somebody to upload some fragment of the show with inconsistent quality and unpredictable keywords. Heck, they can still allow people to upload snippets of the shows as long as they've negotiated ahead of time. So as long as I have Internet access, I don't need cable anymore, and I won't need to download shows illegally.
I think the Google acquisition of YouTube is actually a big win. Think about it -- Google knows you intimately based on your searches, even more so if you have a Google account and gmail. Tie that to your video viewing habits, and Google effortlessly blows away the whole Neilsen rating system. They can provide cheaper bandwidth and hosting than the networks themselves, and they can track everything you watch and every ad you see. And you won't see ads for things you wouldn't want to buy anyway. This represents a potentially huge efficiency/productivity gain for advertisers, and they will pay well for it.
Google has big plans to be a major player in the media industry, whose future is increasingly Internet-based. Don't underestimate them.
Or do you really think they bought YouTube cuz it was "cool" and they had the spare cash? Google isn't stupid. You can believe Page and Brin and Eric Schmidt do some deep thinking about companies they choose to acquire, and what they plan to do with them.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
The reason that YouTube is such a good venue for the Daily Show and Colbert is that you can search clips from the shows by subject. You can't do that in iTunes. The other problem with using iTunes for all TV content is that a daily 20-minute show is not worth the same amount of money as an episode of Studio 60 or Battlestar Galactica. Charge 50 cents per episode and iTunes would probably increase its revenue, especially now that YouTube is dead. That is, dead beyond sharing baby videos and promoting Chinese lip-syncers.
I'm pretty sure the Daily Show team (and Comedy Central) had no problem with the free advertising they got on Youtube (check out this interview). E.g. the famed "Jon Stewart on Crossfire" clip only had such an impact (actually leading to the show's cancellation) because it was available on the net viewable by anyone who missed it. As for Jon's stance on filesharing I'll just give you a quote from his Oscar's presentation (I'd like to link to the youtube clip, but, well..): "If there is anyone out there involved in illegal movie piracy - don't do it! Take a good look at these people [points at the Hollywood stars in the audience], these are the people you are stealing from. LOOK AT THEM! Face what you've done! There are women here who could barely afford enough gown to cover their breasts."
What a weak move by the DMCA. They don't care for the shows success. Obviously they had other motives for doing this..
And when you gaze long enough into the code, the code will also gaze into you.
When something like this happens, did Comedy Central just give them a list of videos to remove or did they just tell Youtube to remove all videos. Also how do they expect to deal with future infringements? As far as I can tell removing all comedy central clips will be an almost impossible task.
In fact if you search YouTube right now for something as simple as colbert, you get over 4500 clips.
br. If Youtube cannot successfully remove all copyrighted material, will Comedy Central eventually to sue them?
...at least it's not goatse and tubgirl!
There goes the only reason I even went to YouTube. Guess I can't encourage my friends/family to watch Comedy Central anymore by showing them hilarious clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Oh well, it'll be their loss in the end.
I know that. What I want to know is how Google "flopped" when YouTube complied with a reasonable request
The reason so many are claiming Google has made a mistake in purchasing YouTube is the presumption that the primary value of YouTube is the illegal distribution of copyrighted content. Many people, and many /.ers, assume user-created content is valueless and cannot be the center of a viable online business model, despite the success of sites that depend on user contributions, /. itself being a prime example.
Google has not misstepped. The only thing that has misstepped is some /.ers' senses that with the end of an easy means to violate copyright using YouTube so ends the commercial value of YouTube as a whole.
blog
If you remove Southpark, Dave Chapelle, and Daily Show. Damn, that seems about half the content right there!
Here's an "idear" put a flag on the video that the user can select. That says "Was the content of this video created by you or your group?" That may help users who want to showcase their material. Then people browsing content can select whether they want user created or other. Sure you'll never get 100% participation, but it may help people who want to specifically look for cats peeing in toilets, coke bottles exploding, people lighting farts and kids singing "Milk and Cereal"
so i guess ALL Comedy Central content isn't really correct.
If Big Media is the Harvester of Eyes, does that make Apple an arms dealer?
then sell it to some other schmuck...
its like selling a bridge.
Over 10,000 sports clips were removed. Nearly everything for Martina Navratilova disappeared, for instance. Sports-themed clips also disappeared, even though they don't have any actual sports in them, like the Chris DeBoy gay sports clips.
I liked being able to see some of these USA shows on YouTube, as they not broadcasted overhere in Europe. I think what a lot of traditional media haven't realised yet is that they potentially have a global audience, but not though the traditional media, as those aren't selective enough. I watch USA broadcasts on YouTube, friends of mine watch japaneese manga, some of my colleagues watch BBC broadcasts though the internet, audiences are no longer limited to borders and media companies could profit if they realised that.
RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor
Nothing.. Being bought by Google will pretty much kill the idea off before the dust settles. Well, actually the lawyers will do it, but now that google bought it, the lawyers smell money and nothing stops a hungry lawyer... Even the law as they will just get it changed in their favor.
Attorneys are the most destructive force in the world today, far out stripping any countries 'armed force' out there, and hell bent on destroying society.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I sent this to Comedy Central last night:
...and that's with DSL. It must be completely useless at slower connection speeds.
"...Here's the cool thing you've just screwed up: your fans picked the very best stuff to share. Not only did they pick the best shows, they edited them down to the best segments. They chose those clips because they were topical, they were funny, and they were worth sharing. If I go to your site, I can watch the shows that you've selected, and they are not the same ones. Nice move.
Next, the YouTube video player works. Your video player? Not so much... Here's why:
1. You have tiny little videos that can't be resized. It's like watching TV from the next room through the keyhole of a closed door.
2. You use javascript to launch a popup window. Therefore, I can't send a link to my friends or put a link on my blog to direct people to the video highlight I want them to see.
3. Your popup window can't be opened in a tab or resized. Give me control of my browser back.
4. Your popup window has an obnoxious background that I'm afraid is going to give me a seizure.
5. Next to your video, there's an ad that's bigger than the video Firefox blocks it, but I can't decide which is worse: the hole that remains in the background, or the background.
6. When I open a YouTube page, the video starts to play. Isn't that cool? On your page, I sit and think about how much you suck while the video buffers. The video plays for about 3 seconds until it over-runs and starts buffering again.
7. With YouTube, I can embed the videos in my own website. When I visit a site I'm more likely to watch a video if its right there and I can just push play. You're at least five years away from developing that technology.
8. YouTube's search feature also works, conveniently allowing me to find what I'm looking for. At your site I end up looking through a list of videos..."
The entire letter is here: http://tinyurl.com/y66aav
My other sig is funny.
I think they may have bought YouTube exactly so they could strip it of all commercial content. YouTube out performed Google Video precisely because of all the commercial content it contained. If you can't compete then you must assimilate. While there were 2 main players, one (YouTube) had to out gun the other (Google) at the risk of being sued. Now that there is only 1 player, no one needs to take the annoying risk of copyright infringement anymore in order to attract hits. Consequently the legally questionable material can be safely removed without the risk of drifting further behind your competitor. It's just another example of how monopolies mean less choice for the consumer.
Every time I watch The Tonight Show these days, they're showing some clip that they found on YouTube.
But somehow, *they're* not violating copyright laws, because it was author-uploaded content?
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
Google's stock went up by more than $1.65b in market cap the very day they bought YouTube, which was done as a pure stock deal. This means that while Youtuve's founders, investors and staff still made a pile of money, it was effectively free for Google. Since that time, their market cap has gone up another $15bn or so, and a good proportion of that is due to the buzz from the YouTube deal.
Google didn't buy YouTube to kill it, they bought it because it was a bunch of free eyeballs. Yes, they will have to fund its operating costs (I'd guess at about $3m-$4m a month including that rather large internet bill) but that's pocket change. At minimum, it's a very reasonable experiment for Google to enter into, and it's a way to corner the audience for a whole new media phenomenon. It would have been stupid NOT to buy it.
Copyrighted content is an issue, but a minor one - the nay-sayers like Mark Cuban are quite frankly jealous. As long as YouTube makes a reasonable effort to take that stuff down, they'll never get taken into court - the copright holders know it's helping their sales, not hurting, they are just making sure they are seen to be protecting their IP so that they can go after real pirates.
As other posters have observed, piracy and porn isn't the main thrust of YouTube, it's about the network effect of being THE portal for all of those wannabe filmakers out there and then getting the benefit of all the advertising, marketing and distribution around it.
http://grouper.com/video/daily+show
My other sig is funny.
I felt a great disturbance in the Tubes, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Yeah, yeah, lame to reply to my own post. BUT, I have a blog entry that depends upon a YouTube entry and now that link is broken, except . . . Daily Show videos are still available on http://video.google.com/.
=)
blog
Who cares if it makes a profit? They got so far behind them in terms of competition, maybe this was the easiest way...
a) safe harbor is nothing like what you describe.
2) I have downloaded videos from YouTube. ( mine of course ) but it's not that difficult.
Google did not need You Tube to do what you suggest. They have zero in the way of patents or trade secrets that would make this easier for Google. And Google does not need the YouTube BRAND either as that dilutes their own very valuable brand name.
No, this was an immense mistake for Google, almost as bad as 3Com buying US Robotics.
Dog is my co-pilot.
Its funny, those two guys love that their stuff is on YouTube, and mention it during broadcasts.
A quick search for both John Stewart, ans Steven Colbert turns up around 4000 clips. It appears they only nuked shows, not individual clips.
Same goes for southpark... unless you speak german, in which case, the shows are still available.
What the hell? Comedy Central has always hosted its own videos in a streaming format. It has absolutely nothing to do with YouTube.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
Without Comedy central clips and other copyrighted material You Tube is pretty much worthless to me.
Amateur video is hardly usually worth the time to even watch, no less base a whole site off. Face it, if it's good, it's usually copyrighted or soon to be.
There is hardly any point of these video services existing if they don't play quality content, just another waste of a domain name.
maybe instead of gootube it should be called screwedtube because frankly their getting screwed left and right, eventually they will have only one video left to viewing.
6347 South Park clips
2318 Colbert clips
2714 Daily Show clips
2490 Chappelle clips
Google needs to get themselves some lube....
Hi. I know most of you guys think that Google can do whatever it wants and that Google is the best thing since sliced bread, but Google is a search engine and nothing more. Oh yeah, they have a webmail service everybody keeps ranting about...that's not close to the full functionality of Yahoo Mail/Calendar/Address Book.
But back to the point here...
Google can't buy Comedy Central. Because Comedy Central is not for sale. You see, a pretty good sized company called Viacom owns Comedy Central. And I'm pretty sure that Sumner Redstone doesn't have any intention of selling any of his countless profitable subsidiaries, Comedy Central among them.
And don't start with Google's market cap. That's like saying Google could do what AOL did to Time Warner...a buyout with a stock swap. Sorry, Steve Case (or whatever his first name is) made it abundantly clear how wise those mergers are.
Actually, that is in part how Viacom bought CBS. CBS' stock was in the tank and Viacom bought it up. CBS is the most-watched network, but is it profitable? Maybe barely. Anyhow, I'm way off topic now.
Mainly, I am really sick and tired of Google fanboys.
Funny how Comedy Central wants YouTube to remove clips of The Daily Show when much of what comprises The Daily Show is clips of footage taped off other broadcasters (Fox, CNN, etc)...
I have a number of users subscriptions to shows I miss. Every week that person more of less disappears and thier vids disappear. So I have to go looking again.
Well some of the accounts now still show the shows but you won't find them via the search engine in youtube. For example I have just watched the last 3 daily shows on youtube this morning.
The only way I can see them being caught now is
a) Someone reports them.
b) they get moved up to the most viewed/subscriptions/rated. Although they can be disabled.
and that doesn't rule out privately shared videos.
Comedy Central isn't available in any form in my country. I was watching clips of these shows on YouTube until I realised the whole thing is on Bittorrent anyway. Now I watch them on the PC usually within 12 hours of the US broadcast. Content providers have a dilemma. If they restrict access, they loose impact. Look at how paul Krugman and other columnists effectively disappeared from Internet discourse after the NY Times paved them over with subscription-only access. The revolution will not be televised.
Only boring people are ever bored.
While I use itunes for all my tv watching (dont watch much tv, it's much much much much cheaper for me than paying for cable, and I get the advantage of no commercials), I agree with you here. For short shows, itunes would be terrible I imagine.
It doesn't have to be, though. They could bundle multiple shows with a single price. I've seen them do that with bsg eps where a 2 parter was sold as a single 90 minute show, for the single show price (did that with a recent bsg 2 parter, for example).
I don't have the time or interest to watch a show every weekday, though. That's a pretty big commitment.