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Freeview parody pulled from YouTube

That clip that mocks Freeview has been pulled amid claims it breaches YouTube's "community guidelines."

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freeview062A spoof parodying the Freeview commercial has been pulled from YouTube amid claims it breaches the site’s “community guidelines.”

The clip says of Freeview, “you can watch the same thing on up to four different channels…..in crystal clear standard definition, without the ability to skip ads and without the co-operation of manufacturers who couldn’t give a s**t….. brought to you by people who are so creative they even stole the idea for this ad from Ford.”

One of YouTube’s rules stipulates:

Respect copyright. Only upload videos that you made or that you are permitted to use. This means don’t upload videos you didn’t make, or use content in your videos that someone else owns the copyright to, such as music tracks, snippets of copyrighted programs, or videos made by other users, without necessary permissions.

Millions of clips on YouTube also contain copyright material, but other networks, including in the US, frequently pull clips for similar reasons.

In Australia “Fair Use” under copyright law allows the inclusion of copyright material in the reporting of News and Reviews, including use of satire.

There were around 12,000 views of the clip before it was pulled. But it can still be seen seen here.

The clip was created by Dan Ilic of Downwind Media and Triple J’s Marc Fennell. Both are now selling T-Shirts to pay for potential legal bills

Ilic is asking people to download the clip here and add it to their own YouTube channels, potentially flooding the site with far more copies of the parody than it started with.

35 Responses

  1. FYI and update!

    “A spoof video poking fun at digital television coalition Freeview was taken offline after a request from the group’s lawyers, YouTube says.”

    “”We don’t ordinarily comment on individual videos,” a spokesperson for YouTube said.

    “But due to some confusion that is circulating online… I wanted to confirm that we received (an infringement) notice for lawyers acting on behalf of Freeview Australia Limited to remove the video in question.” “

  3. That’s a great clip, but they needn’t sell t-shirts to pay for potential legal issues. The video is pulled, and that’s that. I’ve had a small handful of vids removed by YouTube because of their copywrite content from the likes of Fox, so I don’t think FreeView are really going to be pushing anything here… the negative publicity alone would give them pause…

  4. I downloaded the FLV version of this video when the first story linking to it was up here, and I’ll be showing it to all my friends because it’s so true.

    I think Freeview is afraid of this video with good reason 🙂

  5. A few people have commented us on selling t-shirt to cover potential legals bills, we’re just having fun with it, so relax. The profits on the t-shirts will go to paying for the venue hire at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Marc’s hairdressing and make up.

  6. The clip’s humour lies in its truthfulness. 7, 9 and 10 are themselves bad jokes. TV in this country is run by dinosaurs.

    They got caught up in the “private equity” nonsense of recent years and are now paying the price. With huge debts and plummeting revenue there will be many tears in the years ahead. It is all their own doing.

  7. FYI Australian Copyright law has no “Fair Use” provisions, its called “Fair Dealing” and as correctly stated it allows for parody or satire (as well as news coverage, education, and specific government uses), under which classification this clip clearly falls. Just wanted to clarify to avoid confusion with US Copyright law.

    This aside, the YouTube terms and conditions can be more strict than Australian or US law just as any contract can, provided it doesn’t contravene those laws.
    It would in fact be sensible for YouTube to have conditions that covered them against the strictest laws to avoid a legally uploaded clip in one country breaching copyright in another.

  8. Jason: in my hometown of Hong Kong, the two local commercial networks (ATV and TVB) have had advertisers sponsoring primetime programs outright for the last 4-5 years, and the company’s name is shown at the start of the program, ad breaks, and in promos.

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