CTV: You’re a Bunch of Douchebags

I broke new ground last week: for the first time I was served with an official takedown notice that evoked the DMCA. Aren’t I special? Being a Canadian, I’m of course not subject to the draconian DMCA law, but YouTube, being in the United States, certainly is. I posted about the CTV spot before, so I won’t repeat my thoughts on it here, but I can’t fathom why CTV wouldn’t want someone to share branding material like that TV spot. It only helps make their TV station more well known, even if it’s with people who aren’t within broadcast range. Here’s the YouTube “you got busted” email:

I wonder how many of those YouTube sends out a day? 100? 1000? 10,000? YouTube is still chock-full of copyright materials, but I suspect some companies are smart enough to understand how beneficial it is for them to turn a blind eye (the Daily Show and Colbert Report come to mind).

I just had a thought though: what if Holland & Hart LLP isn’t CTV’s legal firm, but instead represents Natasha Bedingfield, the artist who’s song was used in the CTV spot? I somehow think that’s unlikely though, because the ad spot was taken down within 48 hours of me posting it, and the only way a law firm could have found it that quickly would be if they were doing daily searches for “CTV”.

Anyway, Holland & Hard LLP, along with CTV: I hope you are one day made irrelevant by the changes in online digital media distribution that you can’t hope to stop or control.