The Video Library of Alexandria
One of the fun things about YouTube is that it is a very effective magnet for rare or unavailable video clips. In that, it certainly seems like an appropriate purchase for Google, much like DejaNews before it. Today I was looking around and happened across a clip of Nina Simone singing "My Baby Just Cares for Me," with claymation by Aardman Animations' Peter Lord. I originally saw that clip maybe 10 years ago now at a film festival in San Francisco, and it introduced me both to Nina Simone and the song, which became one of my favorites. I've looked around for a copy of the video to buy for many years without success, but there it is on YouTube. What a treat.
Stories about copyright claims burning through YouTube are becoming more frequent, and I bet that will become the canonical story about the site for a bit. Too bad. That's not what's interesting about YouTube. I'm glad it's there and hope its new home makes it more flame-retardant over time.
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Comments: 7
[02.12.07 02:23 AM]
Thanks for linking that clip, Mark! It's just adorable! :)
[02.12.07 04:41 AM]
Great news
I hope everybody read this article
[02.12.07 06:11 AM]
I, too, appreciate your notice of Peter Lord's claymation of the Nina Simone classic. It is important to make broadly available materials with historic content and/or significance. YouTube does that.
As Executive Director of the Eunice Waymon-Nina Simone Memorial Project in her birthplace of Tryon, NC, I appreciate any mode by which Simone--a greatly undervalued (international)musician--comes to more conspicuous public notice. I would like to see the magnitude of her multiple talents more widely acknowledged.
[02.12.07 11:22 AM]
I totally agree. I've found a few music videos on there that I've never seen before... like Prodigy's "Out of Space" and Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" (orginal video), and a few I haven't seen in years and never thought I'd see again...Love & Rockets "No New Tale To Tell" is one I never imagined I'd find anywhere ever again. I love YouTube for this and I'd sooooooo hate to see it be drowned down by legal matters like Napster. I just wish, wait...I just REALLY REALLY wish YouTube's URL's were more readable & hackable. That's the one problem there.
[02.15.07 01:13 PM]
I think Lessig's concept of the internet as a 'commons' becomes a lot clearer when one looks at YouTube.
And Devon, check out http://vixy.net/ to convert and d/l the vids in one shot.
[08.05.07 07:01 AM]
Very useful article. The Video Clip was really awesome. Great work .
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Matt Haughey [02.11.07 10:18 PM]
My youtube moment was a few months ago when news hit metafilter that Bob Barker was going to stop doing The Price is Right after 35 years. A few comments in, someone casually linked to a youtube clip of the very first show.
Right at that moment, my socks were completely blown off. There weren't many people that saw the first show and there weren't ample home recorders 35 years ago. The original show tape was probably sitting at UCLA's museum of film and TV for the past few decades with a few dozen people checking it out from time to time, but otherwise, that video moment would likely have sat on a shelf forever.
Until Youtube came along...