Freeview parody pulled from YouTube
That clip that mocks Freeview has been pulled amid claims it breaches YouTube's "community guidelines."
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
A 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
Regarding ad-skpping, the majority of viewers don’t want to be forced into viewing advertising, especially when it ruins the timing and flow of the programs. In lieu of ad breaks, commercial networks should look into having advertisers sponsoring programs outright. It would provide good public relations for a company to sponsor a program without any advertising excluding before and after the presentation. People will think that it was nice of “Brand X” to sponsor my favourite show, they would consider buying their product or service. The programs can be listed in TV/Electronic guide for example “7:30 – Company X presents Bondi Chef”.
You wouldn’t go back to a restaurant that had poor customer service. so if Freeview, commercial networks and advertisers treat viewers with contempt then they will leave and find other options.
if freeview are so concerned about copyright why did they still the idea for their ad from ford.
Zambora: I’m not sure that Gruen will make much of the Freeview ad given that ABC is a partner in Freeview and ABC’s managing director (IIRC) is the CEO of Freeview!
And as for ‘pinching’ ideas from other sources, well, ‘recycling’ has been happening in TV network promotions for years and years. it is nothing new and nothing remarkable.
I don’t really have an issue with the ad-skip feature (or lack thereof) in Freeview. TV doesn’t just make itself it needs dollars to do it, so I can understand the networks restricting the ad-skip feature on the FV equipment otherwise they’ll be encouraging viewers to skip ads which hurts their income . And then we’re going to see more product placement intruding into program content which nobody wants either.
And *some* ads are actually worth watching!
can’t wait for Gruen Transfer to poke fun at this.
Any chance that networks will own up when they blatantly pinch promos from other sources and modify them i.e. Nine
Hi guys, Marc Fennell here, one of the spoof creators….
I believe there’s a pretty worrying issue behind all this. These Freeview people are claiming that they’re revolutionising television. How can they be revolutionising television if they don’t understand the most basic principals of the internet? Content wants to be free and it will be. How are they hoping to compete with internet piracy if they don’t comprehend this basic truth – the same principle in fact that is sending audiences fleeing from Free To Air TV in droves? If anything, I think this whole affair exposes a real flaw in their paradigm about the media. At the end of the day, Freeview may be a a pretty vanilla project but I dont think it was evil. A marketing excercise for digital TV? Good on them. Our issue was that they were misrepresenting their product and confusing consumers… but this core misunderstanding that Freeview seem to have about the media and the internet: I think that’s much more concerning.
That’s ridiculous that youtube would pull that down.
The thing that annoys me most about freeview is that it’s an attempt to stop ad-skipping by sending pvrs back to vhs days in terms of fast forwarding ads.
it was a hilarious clip. ill be purchasing a shirt.
how do i get a little picture like Neon?? 🙂
s103AA- A fair dealing with an audio visual item does not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the item or in any work or other audio visual item included in the item if it is for the purpose of parody or satire.
i’d say this ad fits the definition of an audio-visual item, there is another section (s41A) on the same thing that covers literary, artistic, dramatic or musical works but i really don’t think ads fit in that description but they are covered by this section.
this video is not only a fair dealing, it is a bloody good call, and i really don’t see any court ruling against the comedians.
“Potential” legal bills? For what?
I’ve had copyrighted material pulled from my YouTube channel, and even had a YouTube account closed on me. That’s all they do.
And if you upload that video to a YouTube account you’re quite fond of, beware. They close accounts at the drop of a hat….no debate, no arguments, all videos lost. You won’t get it back.
No legal issues here folks….move along.
agree with mac’s comments, perhaps the networks should just do something with Freeview so that it doesn’t leave itself open to criticism! Some brownie points to Ten and ABC for their efforts with ONE and ABC2 respectively, and minus a thousand brownie points to each of Nine and Seven who seem to think that keeping their heads in the sand and doing nothing will make multi-channelling go away
“…Both are now selling T-Shirts to pay for potential legal bills”
What legal bills? They won’t have any legal case to answer from having their clip pulled from/by YouTube.
Technically, they could. But they won’t. Not even FreeTV Australia is *that* stupid.
the free to airs should be spending there time trying to promote freeview, not trying to silence anyone who says anything bad about it like a bunch of babies who cant take criticism.
good point bindi i have actually heard that before about satire, dont now though if that includes using video or just the name of what your spoffing though, although if it dont it should. the networks should now anyway thats it impossible to removing something from he internet once it up there.
Plus yes Bindi is right – both here and in the US satire is exempt from copyright restrictions, also I’m glad someone pointed out the similarity with that Ford commercial that I’d been seeing all summer!
April Fools Day is coming up. I would’nt be surprised if the “Freeview parody flood” happened then. As Rick Astley once said, “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you…”
I gotta hand it to Dan – he continues to find new and interesting ways to make news – would someone give this man a show already!!
this is blatant censorship and bullying, these people need to look at s103AA of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) there is a specific exception to copyright for parody or satire. it may also fall under s103A where there is an exception for criticism or review. if this goes to court, the comedians will win, freeview has no rights here they just send an infringement notice to youtube and the item is automatically removed, youtube makes no judgements about whether an infringement notice has any merit if they did they would not have removed it.
.mov is a great format, Quicktime way better than the Windows crap. Maybe you need a better browser or computer Bazza.
I wonder did Karri Ann have it pulled, or was FreeView getting scared people would lean the truth?
Just shows how backward the networks really are. To get around copyright, they’d just need to change a few words and everyone would still get it. Hope the video lives on.
As long as at least one copy of the file exists out there, it will always keep popping up on the internet. Surely the television industry knows this.
They need to *not* use .mov… Quicktime is a notorious browser crasher. I certainly won’t be forwarding that url to friends, I get enough abuse from them as it is.
Funny ad. Funny cos it’s true! [here’s looking at you 7 & 9 (in particular)]
My, my, we do have some thin skinners and mouth frothers in the Aus Free TV society don’t we? Oh well, best buy a T shirt