Posted on February 20, 2006 at 4:14 PM in thoughts
Note: The below is an archived entry from Earthling, formerly EarthLink's official blog. The blog itself has been decommissioned and is no longer updated, and comments are trackbacks are no longer accepted.
Today the New York Times picked up a story dating back to last Friday about YouTube.com taking down all of its copies (about 500 of them) of the original Lazy Sunday Saturday Night Live short at the request of lawyers representing NBC Universal.
There's a brief entry on YouTube's blog from February 16th about it:
Hi Tubers! NBC recently contacted YouTube and asked us to remove Saturday Night Live's "Lazy Sunday: Chronicles of Narnia" video. We know how popular that video is but YouTube respects the rights of copyright holders. You can still watch SNL's "Lazy Sunday" video for free on NBC's website. (link to the blog)
As far as I can tell, NBC Universal didn't ask for the removal of any of the user-created remixes of Lazy Sunday. That's something of a silver lining to me. Those authors borrowed the audio, video, and in some cases both in creating their own versions. Hopefully NBC decided to leave them alone because they see it as fair use of the creative material, and not because it's impractical to go after them.
Few commenters I've read argue with either NBC's right to request the removal or YouTube's compliance with the request. But there is some debate over whether or not it was a wise move for NBC. John Biggs writes in The New York Times:
Several online commentators noted that NBC's response to YouTube, while legally justified, may have been short-sighted. The online popularity of "Lazy Sunday" has been credited with reviving interest in "Saturday Night Live" at a time when it is in need of some buzz. (link to that article)
You can still find copies of the video on Google Video, at iTunes for $1.99, and on the NBC site (Windows only). Though they have probably stemmed the tide, it will most likely be difficult for NBC to keep all free copies of the video off of the web. There are dozens of video sharing sites and thousands of users uploading clips all of the time. YouTube alone claims 20,000 video clip uploads each day.
Update: If you're in to that sort of thing, the blog ConsumerGeneratedMedia.com has an in-depth look at the possible implications for advertisers, marketers, and lawyers.
Erick Schonfeld offered some other ways NBC could have dealt with the problem.
And Om Malik wrote about how the very thing that attracts many to YouTube is the ability to find copyright-infringing content.
Comments
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/21/irony_snl_cast_uses_.html
check that out.. funny stuff if you ask me. :)
Posted by Shawn Reed | February 21, 2006 12:30 PM
Not available at youtube, 1.99 at itunes and free at nbc.com, this is a company clearly without a clue yet what to do. wouldn't surprise me if it was a bit of a stall tactic until they get a policy in place.
Posted by butterbeancastro | February 23, 2006 8:57 AM