Hi everyone
You may remember some time ago I released a song entitled "Sparlock We Love You" on YouTube.
The song was a parody of the "Become Jehovah's Friend" DVD, and became very popular - with well over 10,000 views last time I checked.
I did consider the possibility that the Society would complain on grounds of copyright infringement, because I used some specially-altered versions of images on the DVD, such as the one below...
However, I shrugged this off, because I thought even the Society wouldn't be as petty as to publically complain about the way the images were used.
Nevertheless, they did. Today I got the following email...
Dear John Cedars,
We have disabled the following material as a result of a third-party notification from Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvanias, claiming that this material is infringing:
Sparlock We Love You Song - Lesson 2 - Become Jehovah's Friend DVD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wvo71QG7k4
Please Note: Repeated incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to prevent this from happening, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.
If one of your postings has been misidentified as infringing, you may submit a counter-notification. Information about this process is in our Help Centre.
Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material was disabled due to mistake or misidentification may be liable for damages.
Yours sincerely,
– The YouTube Team
I went on YouTube and was confronted with the following screen...
And this is what you now see when you try to watch the video itself...
I don't feel any shame over this. In fact I regard it as something of a badge of honor that the mighty Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania has been sufficiently riled by one of my songs/videos as to formally complain to YouTube. Obviously, this won't remotely intimidate me when it comes to posting damaging information about the Society on the internet. If anything, it further spurs me on. It also serves to illustrate how petty and desperate the Society has become when it comes to protecting its floundering public image.
Cedars
...OUTLAW