YouScrewed

So apparently my most popular YouTube video, a music video using Cowboy Bebop movie clips set to Queens Of The Stone Age's "Song for the Deaf", has disappeared. No warning, no e-mail, no notification -- just gone.

Am I phenomenally surprised by this? Not really. I mean, it's copyrighted footage and copyrighted music, used without permission. I have no legal right to have it up there, and they have every right to take it down. (Even though it makes them lame.) I wondered if something like this would ever happen; I just didn't think it'd be so... cold. I wouldn't have known it happened if someone hadn't sent me a message asking where the video was. I didn't even get the satisfaction of feeling like a rebel.

Perhaps... this is all part of some sort of plan. Perhaps it's YouTube's way of giving a slap on the wrist to minor offenders to save face with certain mega-corporations (you won't have to DO A SEARCH to figure that one out, wink wink), while reserving the serious legal threats for actual troublemakers. Maybe I've paid my dues to YouTube society, and won't have to worry again until I start posting leaked tracks from the next Queens Of The Stone Age album set to pictures of the band members and superimposed "NEW SONG!!!" text.

Maybe I should stop talking before I get sued.