MySpace Aims to “Take Down” YouTube, Orders It to “Stay Down” in Schwarzenegger Voice (With a Little Pauly Shore)

Don’t be that kid still listening to Panda Bear this summer!

Yup, there’s a new bandwagon rollin’ into town! The most popular unknown band in the indie-pop/ freak-folk/ dub-tronica/ buzz-wordical/ avant-twee scene is bustin’ loose and heading to an all-ages Rec Center/ Chain-shirking Party House/ Dive Club owned by one of the Stokes/Outdoor Stadium near you!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing “Take Down, Stay Down,” the furious 15-piece that nobody knows about and everyone’s talking about, based out of Brooklyn/L.A./Omaha/London/Hotlanta. These guys/girls are not just “so cool that they’re hot.” They’re also so indie that they’re dance, so druggy that they’re inspirational, and so hideous that they’re pin-up cute.

But don’t take my word for it! Let’s see what some of the most bitchin’ blogs are saying about “Take Down, Stay Down” . . .

Uh... let’s see...

Uh...

Hmmmm... well... this is embarrassing...

Uh, sorry everybody. It seems that I misread my assignment a little bit here. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, “Take Down, Stay Down” isn’t the newest indie-rock buzz band. Apparently, it’s a new video initiative being spearheaded by renowned time-waster/internet friend-finder MySpace in an attempt to edge-out YouTube in the world of internet video dominance (read: world domination). The goal is to prevent users from reposting videos that have previously been removed for reasons of copyright protection. According to Billboard, “Take Down, Stay Down” is a feature that creates a “digital fingerprint” on any video that has been taken down at copyright holders' request. It then “places that fingerprint into a filter that will block any other user from uploading that same video in the future.”

And the point of all of this high-tech James Bondocity, you ask? Simple. Until now, content owners who have posted on services such as YouTube and MySpace have long-ignored the intrinsic idea that they shouldn’t post valued details of their lives and work on the internet and, invariably, have long-lamented the grim reality that less considerate members of these websites simply repost videos that said copyright owners have previously demanded be taken down.

Now, with its new initiative, MySpace is striking a blow for the good ol’ U.S. Constitution, putting a stop to the kind of wanton video piracy that we all know and love and exposing a key vulnerability of video-sharing sites like YouTube, which has recently drawn a $1 billion lawsuit from media giant Viacom. At the moment, videos taken-down for copyright reasons on YouTube tend to reappear on the site moments after being pulled, which renders DMCA-provisioned copyright defenses as useless as, well... most of the videos on the internet themselves, for one thing.

But don’t consider YouTube’s digital ass kicked just yet. See, the fingerprinting and filtering technology used for MySpace’s new “Take Down, Stay Down” service is provided by the company Audible Magic, the company who is also signed on to power a web-video solution for, you guessed it: YouTube.

(I’ll let you all take a minute to think about how stupid that seems. Good? Ready? Okay...)

According to digitalmusicnews.com, YouTube has yet to unveil its new filtering service, but we bet that once it does, the internet won’t be nearly as fun to visit anymore.

So I guess, in retrospect, I will see you at the “Take Down, Stay Down” show after all. Because pretty soon, it’s going to be the only show in town. Better pick out a good book now, kids.

Most Read



Etc.