Improv Everywhere Questions Tribune Co’s Journalism AND Ethics

ImprovEverywhere, the mischevious gang of merrymakers who brought us the Mall Musical, the Grand Central Freeze and the annual NYC silliness that is the No-Pants Subway Day celebrated April Fool’s Day with a really funny spoof of their own work in which they rounded up a large group to join a grave-side funeral for something they called “Best Funeral Ever”:

Of course, there were some people who thought this was an actual prank.  Not just regular people, but some newspeople at Tribune-owned CW11 who saw the video on YouTube and went to air with a completely unchecked report claiming the video was a genuine prank.

Charlie Todd, founder of Improv Everywhere, thought this was pretty funny so he posted the video of the newscast onto YouTube.  Shortly after, the video was pulled thanks to a takedown notice from Tribune.  As Todd says:

It’s OK for them to air content that we shot and own, but it’s not OK for me to upload their footage of the content they took from me? It’s “fair use” for the news to take a video off of YouTube and broadcast it, but it’s not “fair use” for a citizen to expose their poor reporting on his own content?

No, Charlie, it isn’t OK.  It is, however, a great demonstration of what is wrong with our current copyright laws and especially with the DMCA.

LINK

ABC Vs. YouTube

I love the ongoing “pissing into the wind” approach of big media in their battle against the ease and speed with which any and all content will be spread:

Looking for highlights of last night’s Oscars on YouTube? Good luck.

That’s because ABC, which broadcast last night’s show, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which produces the event, don’t want clips of last night’s show on the world’s biggest video site. Instead, they’d prefer that you watch highlights on ABC’s Oscar.com site. (via)

Aside from the fact that I was able to find a number of live streaming links of the Academy Awards last night (on of them was even on the popular Justin.tv) there are literally hundreds of clips of last night’s show on YouTube and elsewhere.

Oh, and you can also download the entire thing from any number of P2P sites.

The point is that ABC has wasted time and energy trying to protect their property instead of working with the powerful distribution forces that were going to win either way.

CNN or YouTube?

There is a pretty amazing post over at Neatorama that features a YouTube video of a group of young women looting a store during the riots earlier this week in Belgrade.

“It’s yet another peek into another world that we would be less likely to see before the age of internet and YouTube. How is society changing with the barrier to entry for broadcasting to millions of people around the world set so low?”

I’d say that is a pretty excellent question to consider.  I’m actually reminded of a book by Christopher Buckley called Little Green Men (it was made into a bad movie with Randy Quaid).  In the book, the Earth is invaded by little green men from Mars.  Instead of bringing horrible weapons or disease, they have the ability to teleport instantly to anywhere.  This allows them to spy on anyone they want to.  Once they’ve finished spying they immediately go and share what they’ve learned with the offended party.  The effect of all of this is that secrets become impossible and all the world powers are forced into a completely open position.

(Actually, I am not totally certain that is actually the plot of the book, but that’s how I remember it… )

I really wonder if this isn’t sort of what is happening with the combined proliferation of the internet along with mobile phones that capture video.  There are phones now that can capture and post the video simultaneously, making anyone capable of becoming a live, uncensored, on-the-scene reporter.

CNN can kiss my ass.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VWZoKWBYXE&rel=1]