Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Copyright Law Blogs -> ZeroPaid

Copyright Law

: ZeroPaid

MTV Censors Names of P2P Programs from Music Video

By soulxtc

Weird Al Yankovic's 2006 "Don't Download this Song" oddly contains bleeps where he sings the words Morpheus, Grokster, Limewire, and KaZaA. MTV, once known as a true source of Music Television, is taking the music industry's fight against piracy to a rather insane level by now censoring the portions of Weird Al Yankovic's famous "Don't Download This Song" where he mentions the file-sharing programs Morpheus, Grokster, Limewire, and KaZaA on it's recently launched MTvM website. The opening verse of the song is supposed to read as follows: Once in a while maybe you will feel the urge To break international copyright law By downloading MP3s from file-sharing sites Like Morpheus or Grokster or Limewire or KaZaA But, MTV has decided to bleep the parts of the song where he lists the file-sharing programs making it a sort of weird form of censorship that makes it look rather odd considering its love for the freedom of speech and expression that it has always claimed to champion. The funny thing is that it most likely has the "Streisand Effect" of making people aware of something that they wouldn't have already been otherwise. I highly doubt that the few who would have watched this video, I mean it's Weird Al for heaven's sake, would have suddenly jumped from their seats and begin using file-sharing programs like KaZaA for example.

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on October 31, 2008 (boomark / email).