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YouTube Removes Comedy Central Clips Due to DMCA

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the less-tube-more-goo dept.

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."

8 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Umm, "due to DMCA"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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"?

  2. Why the DMCA? by omeomi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  3. Re:D'oh by omeomi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Though really, do 5-minute clips of the show threaten Comedy Central's revenue model, or help it?

    Now that YouTube is owned by a company with serious money, they're probably trying to negotiate a deal where Google pays X amount per view or something. They can't do that while they're allowing their content to be downloaded for free. My guess is it's all political maneuvering.

    --
    ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack
  4. $15/month to watch a single TV show? by iSeal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!

    1. Re:$15/month to watch a single TV show? by tOaOMiB · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Personally, I don't have cable. At $60/month, it isn't worth it. Everything I watch is on broadcast for free: local sports, news, reruns and what have you.

      Everything, that is, except for the two channels I would pay for: Comedy Central, and Cartoon Network. I don't watch a lot of TV. I don't have time to watch a lot of TV. But I'd love to catch the Daily Show for 20 minutes of my life every day. And you're telling me I should shell out $60 to Comcast for 30 minutes per day + lots of crap I don't have time for, instead of $10 to Apple but be limited to what I actually want? (It's only on 4 times a week, so it really is only $10 a month.) I don't think so.

  5. You Tube without copyright content is WORTHLESS. by Archeopteryx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  6. So it begins.... by miamicanes1990 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess this is just the start. So I guess Google paid $1.65M for lonelygirl15 and cats flushing the toilet videos. Outstanding!

  7. Re:So much for that. by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You've kind of missed the point of YouTube. The "You" refers to user generated. Look at the most viewed lists and about half of it is user generated stuff. Look at the most subscribed channels and it's nearly all user generated stuff.

    I rarely see MTV videos or "BoobTube" type stuff there. But you do. It seems to me what you think YouTube is full of is the things that you search for and/or are subscribed too.

    YouTube is at it's best with user generated content. Removing stuff that is just re-runs of what is already on TV may well improve it.