Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

lazy no more

I guess it was only a matter of time before the lawyers came after YouTube.

A hip-hopping “Saturday Night Live” skit that sparked a Web craze has been removed from a popular free video-sharing site at the request of NBC, which cited copyright concerns.

Called “Lazy Sunday: The Chronicles of Narnia,” the two and a half minute segment follows the rapping duo of “SNL” cast members Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg as they munch on Magnolia Bakery cupcakes, laud the “crazy delicious” combination of Mr. Pibb and Red Vines, and muse about the best route to a New York matinee of the new “Narnia” flick…

At YouTube, a site where people can upload and share personal video clips, at least one version of the file counted more than 5 million downloads—and multiple versions had appeared on the site.

On Thursday, YouTube visitors found the videos had been deleted.

“NBC recently contacted YouTube and asked us to remove ‘Saturday Night Live’s’ ‘Lazy Sunday: Chronicles of Narnia’ video,” the San Mateo, Calif.-based company, which formally launched its site last December, said in a notice posted to its blog. “We know how popular that video is, but YouTube respects the rights of copyright holders.”

The video continues to reside on NBC’s official “SNL” site, though its embedded video player appears to work only with Windows. Curiously, the skit remains downloadable for free through Google’s video service. It’s also available for $1.99 at Apple Computer’s iTunes store.

(CNet News.com: “SNL cult hit yanked from video-sharing site” - 02/17/06)

Counter to other blog response about the incident, Ars.Technica has a pretty reasonable take on the affair: Yes, it’s ironic that NBC has ordered the “Lazy Sunday” video removed from the site that helped make it such an explosive hit … but, as the copyright owner, NBC had every right to do so (though there’s certainly a bit of “having their cake and eating it, too” in making their request after the video’s wave of popularity had mostly subsided).

It’ll be interesting to see how the competing demands of viral popularity and copyright enforcement shake out as sites like YouTube gain popularity and the owners of popular content try to balance generating “buzz” against profiting from their content.