14 | June | 2007 | The Utube Blog

uTunes: Secondhand Serenade visits YouTube

June 14, 2007

1 Comment | music, music videos, uTunes, YouTube | Permalink
Posted by utubeblog

YouTube takes down popular Smosh Pokemon video

June 14, 2007

News: YouTube has removed Smosh’s mega-popular “Pokemon” video after receiving a copyright DMCA notice from Shogakukan Production Co. Ltd. The Pokemon video was the 4th most watched video ever on YouTube, with over 24 million views. To my knowledge, this is the most popular video ever removed by YouTube under a DMCA notice. By the way, if you don’t know who “Smosh” is, it’s a pair of 20-year-olds Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox. They are the No. 1 Most Subcribed Director on YouTube, and they have the Most Views All-Time on YouTube of any amateur or user-generated content. Smosh, in other words, is the top of the heap at YouTube.

Analysis: This is a close, perhaps questionable, call. The Smosh boys did use the “Pokemon” theme song for their video, but they seemed to me to be parodying the whole Pokemon character, with a pretty over-the-top lip synch and use of Pokemon stuffed animals.

A parody fair use is permitted under copyright law, the only question is whether too much of the copyrighted work is taken. Unfortunately, that question is determined on a case-by-case basis. And, in this case, YouTube appears not willing to risk falling outside the DMCA safe harbor, so it chose to follow the more expedient path under the DMCA of taking down the video.

If you want to see if the video should be considered a parody fair use, I believe a version is still up on Veoh and probably elsewhere on the Internet.

13 Comments | copyright, DMCA notice, DMCA safe harbor, legal, music, music videos, smosh | Permalink
Posted by utubeblog

NBC’s Age of Love on YouTube

June 14, 2007

I’ve been writing about reality TV recently, so was interested to see this promo. Is this really what TV has degenerated to?

3 Comments | NBC, reality TV | Permalink
Posted by utubeblog

YouTube testing out new, larger video player and look

June 14, 2007

News: YouTube has a beta version out for viewing videos on YouTube. The player itself is slightly larger, so is the font. There’s no banner ad at the top, so everything fits close to one screen shot. Also, the video’s creator’s Channel is now viewable prominently on the right hand side over the “Related videos” feature. More thumbnails for each are viewable as well. Also, this might be unrelated, but now I’ve just noticed that there are only 5 pages of Recent Videos available (instead of 10).

Old look is here versus the new look (beta) here. I’ve put a reduced-sized screen shot of the new look below, compared to the old.

Analysis: Bigger, better.

New Look