Vincezilla vs Warner Music Group

Remember that cute little video of my iguana attacking a town full of vegetables? Well the folks over at Warner Music Group decided that since my video used less than a minute of Blue Öyster Cult's track "Godzilla", they had to force YouTube to take it down by crying copyright infringement.

Now, when you try to view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=224Zcn1fiXA all you get is: This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by WMG. Update: The video now plays, but the audio track has been replaced with horrifically lame music, and the video is spammed with ads.

The folks over at MIT have logged this event at: http://youtomb.mit.edu/youtube/224Zcn1fiXA

Now, I'm all-for musician's rights, but taking down a silly video of someone's iguana because it used a snippet of copyrighted music just seems absurd to me. What do they honestly think they're accomplishing here? Is taking down my iguana video going to suddenly get someone to purchase a Blue Öyster Cult album from their local record store? Was I somehow degrading the value of their copyrighted work in some other way? I thought the video was funny and cute. Honestly, I had never even heard of Blue Öyster Cult's song "Godzilla" before we made that video project.

I completely understand prohibiting the reproduction of someone else's copyrighted work for commercial purposes. I didn't make any money off that video. No one paid me to make that video. I did not reproduce the entire song, and silly sound effects often drowned out the portion that I did use. What's the big freaking deal?

I think that next, Vincezilla is going to have to wreak havoc upon Warner Music Group's headquarters. Be afraid WMG. Be very afraid.

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“The failure to perform a public duty...Misprision is a versatile word that can denote a number of offenses. It can refer to the improper performance of an official duty...The most familiar and popular use of the term misprision describes the failure to report a crime....The first Congress passed a misprision of felony statute in 1789. The statute holds, "Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony … conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States" is guilty of misprision of felony and can be punished with up to three years in prison.

Under the federal statute, the prosecution must prove the following elements to obtain a misprision of felony conviction:

(1)another person actually committed a felony;
(2)the defendant knew that the felony was committed;
(3)the defendant did not notify any law enforcement or judicial officer; and
(4)the defendant took affirmative steps to conceal the felony.”