Comedy Central fails to amuse. But it's Halloween!
A news item from the IMDB:
Comedy Central Pulls Clips from YouTube
In what could amount to a telling blow to the video website YouTube.com -- purchased by Google last month for $1.6 billion -- Comedy Central has forced it to remove thousands of clips from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report, and South Park, the New York Post reported today (Monday). Ordinarily, when such clips are removed from the website at the request of the copyright owner, they are quickly replaced. But according to the Post, in this instance, those who originally posted the Comedy Central clips said that they have received emails from the site warning them that if they uploaded the clips again, it would "result in the deletion of your [YouTube] account.
Surprise. This has already been noted by Youtube regulars, it would seem. As to their speculation about the reasons for it, we feel confident that a little quick research will turn them up.
We had speculated in an earlier post that Google would gradually find ways to render its new acquisition worthless. And we would submit that Viacom are fools to cut off the greatest source of free publicity for its own network yet discovered. Copyright law is its own worst enemy.
On the other hand, it's Halloween! Hooray! We here at DHAIP extend to you and yours the best wishes of the season.
We recommend the ghost stories of M.R. James, J. Sheridan LeFanu, and H. R. Wakefield, read by candlelight -- truly elegant chills. In film we suggest The Uninvited (1944), The Haunting (1963 -- not the remake by any means), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), Don't Look Now (1973), Suspiria (1977) or of course The Shining (1980). Kick back and get scared by someone other than the government for a change. Happy Halloween!
posted by Dr. Hulbeck @ 3:24 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Why such a debate over halloween, Dr.? Is not Halloween truly the ultimate celbration of new life and aren't you, dear friend, the modern downtroden warrior of the glass half dead? What is it about this juxtrapostion which encompasses your views?
Your readers demand an explanation!
Good question, readers! Halloween is indeed a celebration of new life. Death and its enjoyably macabre accoutrements are necessary elements of the cycle... as is reveling in our fear of them. Those who avoid mention of death, and turn away from celebrating it, are doing themselves and their lives a great disservice. They doom themselves to triviality and the ingestion of reality television shows. To fear death is normal. To live seeking to escape it is crippling.
Part of the DHAIP mission is to demonstrate that pessimism is, like expecting death, not a negative action but an enormously useful and life-affirming activity. Had our esteemed leaders expected the worst in Iraq, they might have embarked on that ill-conceived venture with a great deal more foresight and preparation, saving many lives. Instead they talked of hearts and flowers, which sounded nicer but got a great many more people killed. To begin an unnecessary war is criminal. To begin an unnecessary war optimistically is criminal and stupid. Much, much worse.
Hope that answers your question?
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