There’s a new series of The IT Crowd starting this week on Channel 4. Hurrah!
In the last series, one of the episodes opened with Roy and Moss sitting down to watch a DVD. We then saw a brilliant mock DVD piracy advert to warn viewers of how bad the criminals you’re supporting are if you buy pirate DVDs.
We all hate these things – and they only ever show up on legal DVDs.
Anyway, I grabbed the video and put it on YouTube. It’s 45 seconds long, and it’s been there since September last year. Of course it’s not mine, and there are loads of other versions of it online as well. Writer Graham Linehan obviously touched a nerve.
So how amusing today to get the following email:

Dear adambowie00,
Your video “Video Piracy” has been identified by YouTube’s Content Identification program as containing copyrighted content which Channel 4 claims is theirs.
Your video “Video Piracy” is still available because Channel 4 does not object to this content appearing on YouTube at this time. As long as Channel 4 has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video’s page.
As I’ve said, before, I’m happy that Channel 4 has an enlightened attitude to using YouTube like this.
But I can’t be the only person to see the irony of the situation here…
BTW – I do of course own a copy of the boxset of Series 1 and Series 2 of The IT Crowd which are authored brilliantly! I would still advocate that an elightened attitude leads to more revenues in the long term.