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Bad news, Peoples!
Today I bring you a rather tragic edition of my on again/off again feature celebrating all things MST3K.
I rarely find myself writing about the glory that is this incomparable program with so heavy a heart, for you see friends--Tirol9's YouTube Channel has been pulled for copyright violations.
Perhaps I should explain in depth:
Yesterday my MST3K-themed TR Daily List was published, and thus I was in the mood for a bit of MSTie goodness. I proceeded forthwith to my Youtube account, where I have (or had) literally dozens of eps saved in playlists. As I have mentioned in the past, early in my online career, before becoming so wildly popular and successful (and delusionalXD), I spent the majority of my time watching MST3K on Youtube. Not only did I get to recapture treasured memories of my dissolute youth, I also got a chance to catch up on the Sci-Fi Channel seasons. SFC wasn't available in my area back in 1997, and I never had the chance to make up for the time I subsequently lost...Until now.
This miracle is largely due to the wonderful folks at the Digital Archive Project (originally known as the MST3K Digital Archive Project) . These diehard MSTies have put uncounted hours and incredible effort into locating, cataloguing, restoring, and downloading as many MST3K episodes as possible: From the pre-Comedy Channel KTMA shows, all the way to the end of the SFC run. They started in 2001, just after SFC had canceled the show, but while they were still showing it in rerun. Oddly enough, the DAP was started for exactly the OPPOSITE of what I uesd them for: See, SFC didn't have the rights to any of the Comedy Central shows, so MSTies who didn't get into the show until it's last 3 seasons were denied ANY exposure to the first 7! They started out simply doing what every episode suggests at the end--that is: "Circulating The Tapes", and eventually started transferring and uploading the shows, many of which would then end up on Youtube, which brings us to Tirol9.
I don't know him or her, we've never met or corresponded. All I know is of all the users who took the time and effort to upload MST3K for the benefit of MSTies the world over,Tirol was the most dependable and prolific. He had scores of eps uploaded, the sound and picture quality was always excellent, the 9 to 10 minute chunks the shows had to be cut into for uploading were always expertly edited--never cut mid-sentence, and never more that a second or two at most would be lost between chapters. We, the MSTies of the Youtube communtity, honored and apreciated his/her efforts, and will miss him dearly.
For you see, as always, if one person on Earth is having a good time there's another wondering why they're not making money off him. NBC/Universal, who apparently hate joy and spit upon all that is good and pleasant (a bit much? I don't think so) threw a shit fit. Already they had successfully blocked certain eps from being downloaded--or made others only downloadable if you cut out the intros--or had episodes blocked if anyone in the comments says the name of the movie (seriously, try to find Gamera on Youtube, and see what happens)
In poor Tirol's case--they managed to get his entire Channel pulled. Not only does this mean I lost about 75% of the episodes I had saved, but I also lost nearly ALL of my Joel episodes! I've got maybe 3 left...What would he say about such a cruel injustice?
Indeed!
Yeah, sure...They own the copyrights, they can do what they want...But was having a few episodes of a show that's been off the air for a decade available for the perusal of fans really hurting anything? Is it any different essentially from recording a program on DVR or tape and sharing it with others? Only the scale is different. Furthermore, no one's making a profit here, and I seriously doubt if having the shows on Youtube is discouraging anyone from buying the DVDs--there's no comparison as far as picture and sound quality, no clicking the next part every 10 minutes, and Youtube won't get you special features and other extras.
In other, more succinct terms:
Fuck you, NBC/Universal.
Seriously, Fuck you in the ear.
We'll miss you, Tirol9:
This is a musical tribute and send-off I found. I very much wanted to find a clip of "Clown In The Sky", but my search proved fruitless (and even though they had nothing to do with it, I'm gonna go ahead and blame NBC/Universal for this, too). Fortunately, I found this utterly sublime remix of every MST3K Theme throughout the show's entire history.
If you're anything like me, you'll need to watch it with a box of Kleenex.
KEEP CIRCULATING THE TAPES!!!
Scootbot
Today I bring you a rather tragic edition of my on again/off again feature celebrating all things MST3K.
I rarely find myself writing about the glory that is this incomparable program with so heavy a heart, for you see friends--Tirol9's YouTube Channel has been pulled for copyright violations.
Perhaps I should explain in depth:
Yesterday my MST3K-themed TR Daily List was published, and thus I was in the mood for a bit of MSTie goodness. I proceeded forthwith to my Youtube account, where I have (or had) literally dozens of eps saved in playlists. As I have mentioned in the past, early in my online career, before becoming so wildly popular and successful (and delusionalXD), I spent the majority of my time watching MST3K on Youtube. Not only did I get to recapture treasured memories of my dissolute youth, I also got a chance to catch up on the Sci-Fi Channel seasons. SFC wasn't available in my area back in 1997, and I never had the chance to make up for the time I subsequently lost...Until now.
This miracle is largely due to the wonderful folks at the Digital Archive Project (originally known as the MST3K Digital Archive Project) . These diehard MSTies have put uncounted hours and incredible effort into locating, cataloguing, restoring, and downloading as many MST3K episodes as possible: From the pre-Comedy Channel KTMA shows, all the way to the end of the SFC run. They started in 2001, just after SFC had canceled the show, but while they were still showing it in rerun. Oddly enough, the DAP was started for exactly the OPPOSITE of what I uesd them for: See, SFC didn't have the rights to any of the Comedy Central shows, so MSTies who didn't get into the show until it's last 3 seasons were denied ANY exposure to the first 7! They started out simply doing what every episode suggests at the end--that is: "Circulating The Tapes", and eventually started transferring and uploading the shows, many of which would then end up on Youtube, which brings us to Tirol9.
I don't know him or her, we've never met or corresponded. All I know is of all the users who took the time and effort to upload MST3K for the benefit of MSTies the world over,Tirol was the most dependable and prolific. He had scores of eps uploaded, the sound and picture quality was always excellent, the 9 to 10 minute chunks the shows had to be cut into for uploading were always expertly edited--never cut mid-sentence, and never more that a second or two at most would be lost between chapters. We, the MSTies of the Youtube communtity, honored and apreciated his/her efforts, and will miss him dearly.
For you see, as always, if one person on Earth is having a good time there's another wondering why they're not making money off him. NBC/Universal, who apparently hate joy and spit upon all that is good and pleasant (a bit much? I don't think so) threw a shit fit. Already they had successfully blocked certain eps from being downloaded--or made others only downloadable if you cut out the intros--or had episodes blocked if anyone in the comments says the name of the movie (seriously, try to find Gamera on Youtube, and see what happens)
In poor Tirol's case--they managed to get his entire Channel pulled. Not only does this mean I lost about 75% of the episodes I had saved, but I also lost nearly ALL of my Joel episodes! I've got maybe 3 left...What would he say about such a cruel injustice?
Indeed!
Yeah, sure...They own the copyrights, they can do what they want...But was having a few episodes of a show that's been off the air for a decade available for the perusal of fans really hurting anything? Is it any different essentially from recording a program on DVR or tape and sharing it with others? Only the scale is different. Furthermore, no one's making a profit here, and I seriously doubt if having the shows on Youtube is discouraging anyone from buying the DVDs--there's no comparison as far as picture and sound quality, no clicking the next part every 10 minutes, and Youtube won't get you special features and other extras.
In other, more succinct terms:
Fuck you, NBC/Universal.
Seriously, Fuck you in the ear.
We'll miss you, Tirol9:
This is a musical tribute and send-off I found. I very much wanted to find a clip of "Clown In The Sky", but my search proved fruitless (and even though they had nothing to do with it, I'm gonna go ahead and blame NBC/Universal for this, too). Fortunately, I found this utterly sublime remix of every MST3K Theme throughout the show's entire history.
If you're anything like me, you'll need to watch it with a box of Kleenex.
KEEP CIRCULATING THE TAPES!!!
Scootbot
