Once again another lesson has been given on what to do in order to make sure that even more people see a video on the internet that you do not want them to see. This all started with CNet doing an interview of Second Life land mogul Anshe Chung in a continuation of the strange infatuation CNet has developed for Second Life. The interview taking place within the virtual world of Second Life was attacked by a griefer who hacked the area with a barrage of flying penises. Someone created a video of the flying penis attack and uploaded it to YouTube.
At this point, I had only heard of the interview and the griefing, not the video. And I had no real desire to see what had happened for myself. It is possible that it all would have ended there, except that people never learn. Chung’s husband filed a DMCA complaint against YouTube to get them to take down the video, which they did. But, as most people on the internet know, once something gets on the net, there’s no going back. The take down notice generated a big outcry against censorship and an attack on fair use rights. And the video was subsequently uploaded to Google Video and probably other similar sites. It was at this point that I learned about the video and took a look at it on Google Video to see what all of the fuss was about. IMHO, it was no big deal. These flying cartoonish penises were more the internet equivalent of schoolboy underarm farting sounds. Annoying, but not really worth calling too much attention to.
Perhaps the realization of this helped Chung’s husband make the decision to withdraw the complaint. Of course it’s a little late now that perhaps millions more have seen the video than might have if the complaint had not been filed in the first place. One can only wonder if all of this publicity was what they really wanted in the first place.