Thanks to a comment by TK42one, we’ve picked up on this post by Rebelscum. Seems YouTube pulled some fan clips, and the Star Wars fans raised it with LucasFilms. Here’s the announcement from LucasFilms:
Lucasfilm has been informed that YouTube recently removed from its site several fan-made Star Wars spoofs and parodies. We would like the fan film community to know that this was not done at our request. Apparently the action was taken by YouTube as a result of a misunderstanding of a request to remove an item containing material taken from starwars.com without our permission. We have asked YouTube to restore any works that they inadvertently removed.
Very “Mentos*” of LucasFilms. Very “Non NBC**” behavior here. Sure- don’t let people steal your stuff and make money. But if they want to use a tiny clip and you get free promotion… go with it.
Definitions:
- * Mentos: adj. The act of celebrating viral videos and swimming with the undertow instead of fighting your way to the shore only to drown.
- ** Non NBC: adj. The act of not sending YouTube a C&D because your SNL skits are getting millions of views and you’re not making money. Or ignoring the multiple requests for permission to use the TINIEST clip of The Office to show how funny a kid thought it was.
P.S. Did you notice how I sided with YouTube on the YouTube v. NBC issue? A good blogger has balance. I’m not mad at them today.
Hahaha. Since the copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube, I get this mental image of them bumping in to each other like the Marx brothers in “Duck Soup” jabbering, “Take it off! Put it back on! Whadda we do? Whadda we do? Oh, things were much simpler back in the day when everything sent in was A-okay!”