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#1
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06-19-2011, 09:12 AM
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Battle Over 'Friday' Deprives Millions of Rebecca Black
oh, the humanity... People hoping to ring in Friday the right way -- the Rebecca Black way -- were surely disappointed this morning because the teenager's campy music video for the song was removed from YouTube... by Rebecca Black herself. "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Rebecca Black. Sorry about that," YouTube writes on the page that once housed the year's best worst song. At least they're polite about it. It wasn't the name-calling or the parodies or the overwhelming crush of instant celebrity that led to Black's decision. Instead, it all comes down to a legal battle between Black and the for-hire music company that wrote and produced the video, Ark Music Factory. Last week, Ark tried to squeeze a few more dollars out of the "Friday" zeitgeist by making the video only available through YouTube's rental service at a cost of $2.99 per view. Kind of ridiculous asking people to pay for what had watched hundreds of times for free. (It was up to 167 million views when it was removed.) Apparently, Ark was pocketing all the rental money for themselves, even though Black was the star. It's a classic singer vs. songwriter battle of money. These financial details are usually pounded out before a song is released, but no one could have predicted how huge "Friday" would become. Ark (as the songwriters and the video's directors) probably was reluctant to give Black (the star) the royalties she felt she deserved for making "Friday" a smash, so Black herself put in the request to have "Friday" removed from YouTube. Ark may have written the song, but Black owns her own image. "We can confirm that we submitted a take-down notice to YouTube as a result of the dispute we have with Ark Music regarding the 'Friday' video," Black's spokesperson (she has a spokesperson now!) told TMZ. All those "Friday" parodies are still on YouTube, as well as Black's cameo in Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)", so those options exist if you're desperate. But if you were hoping to start the morning with Black pondering whether to sit in the front seat or the back seat, you're out of luck. This whole situation spawns the philosophical question: If it's Friday, and there's no "Friday," is it really Friday at all? Is tomorrow Saturday, and is Sunday afterward? |
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#4
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06-19-2011, 03:12 PM
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Re: Battle Over 'Friday' Deprives Millions of Rebecca Black
So if i put a video of myself doing _________ on youTube for all to see and it becomes well known i should then pull it down months later and demand i get some sort of money for voluntarily sharing it with the world...? |