My wife and I took a stroll down memory lane this past weekend. Lots and lots of TV clips from our childhood, courtesy of YouTube. Sesame Street Pinball. The Electric Company Silent E song. Earth phone, yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip. Ray Charles singing “Bein' Green.” Buddy Rich in a drum battle with Animal. And, of course, the Rubber Duckie song.
Theme songs from TV sitcoms. We tried to stump each other. I showed my age a couple of times when my wife said that Sanford and Son and Barney Miller were before her time. Oh well.
It was really amazing how much of this stuff is available, for free, at the touch of a few keys. Stuff that I hadn't seen in thirty years, and stuff that I probably wouldn't even be able to buy even if I wanted to! That's not quite true — there are “greatest hits” versions of The Electric Company and Sesame Street available for sale — but this isn't anywhere close to being able to buy, say, Season 3 of Sesame Street.
But the kicker is that this content is still very much copyrighted.
What has been frustrating is that The Children's Television Workshop has been vigilant about going after website owners who post this content. The few sites I found through Google that might have had even audio tracks had already been told to remove the links. It was quite difficult to track down anything substantial prior to YouTube (or I didn't really know where to look). It was almost as if the CTW wanted everyone who ever saw the show to die off without ever letting them see it again. But that's their fish to fry, not mine, as much as I don't agree with it.
Today, with YouTube, they'll pull stuff off if it's indecent or if it violates other standard “hate-violence-etc.” deals, or if it is made aware that the material is copyrighted. This type of material can be removed through the normal channels of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. But the burden rests on the person being infringed — not (apparently) YouTube or the people posting the bootleg material. (Or that's YouTube's take on the matter.) What's more, for the moment, people viewing such material don't appear to be liable (or else, a whole bunch of us are liable and we'll all get bills from the RIAA and Viacom right after our tax incentives come in.)
My spider senses are telling me that this is a time of plenty, and that something is going to change. Whether it means the viewers will get put on the chopping block, or whether YouTube will, or whether the posters of the material will, there will be epic battles fought.
Hearing and seeing those clips again, though, is strangely comforting. And for the moment they're easy enough to find that I don't even have to provide links to them.
As if I don't already spend too much time watching the early seasons of the Muppet Show! Now you tell me they have the old Electric Company on there as well???
Now my big dilemna: Should I sacrifice blogging time, study time, or sleep time to watch it?
I love using youtube to show my kids music and shows that I loved.
But I don't understand how youtube makes any money off of me.
You inspired me to go and look at the Sesame Street number pinball videos… I still get that music stuck in my head sometimes, and it was great to watch them again! thanks!
Youtube.com is great, but quicksilverscreen.com is better may not have the selection but has the ability of getting resources that are a bit on the more copywriten side.