Takedown First Means Takedown Fun: Toronto Mayor's Fun Kanye West Video Killed By Copyright
from the no-more-fun dept
When you assume a takedown-first posture regarding intellectual property and DMCA notices, that posture brings with it certain situations which make everyone look foolish. You get 80’s music stars yanking six-second vine clips offline, for instance. Or you get radio blowhards using copyright to censor criticism online. And, of course, you get self-proclaimed representatives of aliens from the future issuing takedowns over images that said alien will be creating in said future. In each of those cases, the content was immediately taken down by the service provider, because thems the rules these days. And it sucks.
Just like it sucks when the mayor of Toronto can’t make a funny little parody video mocking himself because it includes a Kanye West song.
Less than 24 hours after a ballcap-wearing John Tory bobbed his head to a Kanye West song through Toronto’s subway system, the joke video appears to have been taken down. The mayor poked fun at himself in the one-minute gag clip posted Thursday, after he mistook West, who is American, for a Canadian artist earlier this week.
“This Tweet from @JohnTory has been withheld in response to a report from the copyright holder.”
Yup, because the Mayor wanted to have a little fun with his thought that ol’ Yeezy was Canadian, his video gets hit with a takedown. Perhaps it was caught by some kind of automated system designed to weed out content covered by copyright… but that would make this even worse. The video, as Tory’s people are acknowledging, was supposed to be a form of parody, one which would be protected as fair use. But in the takedown first culture, that doesn’t really matter. The content still comes down. If it comes down by an automated system, then there’s literally no possibility any thought towards fair use would be had.
And that sucks. With more ways than ever to share content with each other, these kinds of harmless things are supposed to be fun. But the fun gets killed off by a copyright system designed to restrict first and maybe ask questions later.
Filed Under: canada, copyright, fair dealing, fair use, john tory, kanye west, parody, toronto
Comments on “Takedown First Means Takedown Fun: Toronto Mayor's Fun Kanye West Video Killed By Copyright”
Set to a tune...
…Copyright killed the political star.
Re: Set to a tune...
BEEP YOU HAVE INFRINGED ON COPYRIGHT TAKE DOWN YOUR POST AND PAY $150,000 DO NOT PASS GO DO NOT COLLECT $200 BEEP
We have to remake the world until it meets with the copyright industry’s approval!
Only one thing to say to that
YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW!
Now suck on it, and savor the sweet, sweet flavor of absolute power with zero accountability.
Now is the time...
For some capitalizing web artists to say “Use my song instead!”
If you paywall the culture you contribute, expect it to discontinue its cultural relevance.
Fair Use. Sigh. Goodbye.
All things are possible in the Phree States of America, Version 2.0, as long as you’re a member of the Ownership Society and have enough cash to buy as many politicians as necessary.
All the signs show that the Legacy (Dinosaur) Industries consider Fair Use to be a “problem”, solvable only through the removal of the whole concept of Fair Use via the standard Phascist Phormat Phormulae – mass lobbying of rental politicians and the timely introduction of legalese that makes the “problem” go away – or as is more often the case these days – a simple secret re-interpretation of old laws to give them new meanings that are pretty much the opposite of their old meanings.
Should likely not be more than a year before there is a major move to get the courts to outlaw Fair Use altogether, or at least to make it so its utterly un-useable, except BY the Legacy Industries, against the public.
Unless of course, that was part of the reason (p)Resident Drones O’Bomber pulled off the Fast Track Scam, and Fair Use is already dead in the water, due to the crooked Secret Trade Agreement currently being ratified by the Legacy Industries.
Either way, I’m pretty sure we will be seeing the legal eradication of many Legacy Industry “Problems” such as Fair Use and Public Domain, very soon, because the American Public no longer has a voice and so, has absolutely no say in any of this pseudo-legal fascist bullshit.
Ah. Progress.
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First thing I thought was “well, add a silent video with the lyrics in captions as some protest” but I’m not sure it wouldn’t violate the poor songwriter’s rights. The bright side is that there’s a whole wealth of stuff being created under alternative systems. Hopefully these alternatives will become bigger than the ‘proprietary’ ones.
On a side note this seems exactly what Netflix is trying to do: produce their own quality content to rely less on the MAFIAA. I’m personally impressed with the quality of some stuff I’ve seen so I hope they keep at it and succeed. It would be awesome to see these series available in other streaming services for a change too…