It’s Friday, Friday! Or is it?

[bookworm]

Yesterday was Thursday, but what day comes afterwards?
Rebecca Black’s infamous music video is gone!



This is a confusing twist in the Friday saga, and no one knows the full story yet.
About two weeks ago, the Friday video was taken down because of a copyright claim by none other than Rebecca Black herself. It was briefly listed in Youtube Rentals, meaning you had to pay $2.99 to watch it, but then vanished again and is still gone to this day.

What’s unclear is who filed the copyright complaint and why.
Perhaps it was someone falsely claiming to be Rebecca and the situation just hasn’t been cleared up yet.
If it was the real Rebecca, it’s still unclear why she did it.
Was it a concession to her haters aimed at avoiding additional attention?
Or did she have it pulled so she could market the publicity herself and not have to share it with Ark?

There’s been no official explanation from either Ark Music or Rebecca.
To further complicate things, while the original video is gone Ark’s official remix remains.



If the purpose of removing the video was to stem the attention on the song, why was this video allowed to stay online?
We we we so confused. We so confused. Where’s the song about today?

[UNCLEBITTLES]

Wow that's really odd.

[American Eagle]

The world rejoices.

[SoccerLOTR]

The world rejoices.

Hehe.

That's interesting...wonder what will come of this. Maybe it was a mistake...or maybe she just wanted the video off and didn't care so much about the song...

[Shadowfax]

*Rejoices*

She created her own vevo youtube account. 'Twas funny.

[Parker Family]

I think there was a dispute between Ark Factory and Rebecca Black and so youtube took it down until they can settle the issue... unless of course I'm very mistaken

[bookworm]

There is indeed a dispute going on between Rebecca Black and Ark, which gives some validity to the possibility that the real Rebecca is behind the takedown.
Reportedly, Ark Music has yet to give Rebecca the Friday master recordings, which her contract makes her the owner of. Since Ark is a recording studio rather than a record label, their business with clients should be over once the money is paid. However in this case, presumably because of Friday’s unforeseen success, Ark continues to market Rebecca as one of their star ‘artists’. Rebecca has requested they stop, but they haven’t.

As for the video’s brief appearance on Youtube Rentals, Rebecca says she had nothing to do with it. It’s still unknown if that was just a glitch, or if it was a stunt by Ark to pull in more money off this before they lose the ‘rights’ of the song to Rebecca. (Who is actually the proper owner to begin with.)

After the takedown Friday was apparently reuploaded by Rebecca to a Vevo account separate from Ark, but that has also gone offline now. The account has also been suspended “due to a violation of YouTube's policy prohibiting content designed to impersonate another person or user” which may mean it wasn’t the real Rebecca after all.

Through it all, Friday remains available for purchase through iTunes where the credit goes to Rebecca but the money is reportedly split Black 60% Ark 40%.

[Joanne]

haha I wonder if my friend had anything to do with the other account. He was going to try to put it up again...

[bookworm]

Finally, some answers.

A representative for Rebecca said “We can confirm that we submitted a Take Down Notice to YouTube as a result of the dispute we have with Ark Music regarding the ‘Friday’ video.”
So it was the real Rebecca.
I still don’t know if she was the one that reuploaded it to Vevo. I would think not since that one was also taken down.

And apparently it was indeed Ark that decided to make the video a $2.99 rental. Rebecca knew nothing of it, and her lawyers ordered it taken down when she found out.


While we’re waiting for this mess to be settled, has anyone checked out any of the other Ark videos?

(Interestingly, this one was removed from Ark’s channel as well. This is a reupload.)

Compared with those I’d have to say Friday wasn’t actually too terrible. At least it was catchy.

[SoccerLOTR]

Wow...they really think people want to rent her video for $2.99?! She'd have to be the most amazing singer ever for me to even consider that...crazy.

[The Kings Daughter]

The world rejoices.

lol that really is weird. Thanks for the update bookworm.

[jelly]

Wow...they really think people want to rent her video for $2.99?! She'd have to be the most amazing singer ever for me to even consider that...crazy.

Imagine if you produced a video that suddenly started climbing the YouTube charts like wildfire. Sure, everyone hates it, but that doesn't change the fact it's getting millions of views a week! As those impossibly high numbers climb higher and higher, you gotta be thinking, "There just HAS to be a way I can make more money from all these views!"

[bookworm]

Exactly. It wasn’t that they thought it was good, it was the attention.

...No thoughts on the other videos?

[Steve]

...No thoughts on the other videos?

Uh... they are failures?

[bookworm]

Well obviously.
But how do they compare? Better, as bad, worse?

I can’t stand Hooked On You for two reasons. (Actually more, but two main ones.)
First, since when is ‘you’re plastic’ a compliment?
Second, there’s a glaring grammar error in the chorus! “Your lips so soft it shines” It’s they shine! They!

[TigerintheShadows]

:O Bad grammar in songs? Whatever is the world coming to?

Personally, I don't think it matters anyway; it's already destroyed the brain cells of people the world over anyway.

[SoccerLOTR]

:O Bad grammar in songs? Whatever is the world coming to?

Personally, I don't think it matters anyway; it's already destroyed the brain cells of people the world over anyway.

yuppers!

I do realize that they probably thought they should try to make a profit out of all the views...but I guarantee, I wouldn't view anything so bad if I actually had to pay money to watch it. Much less watch it multiple times (therefore needing to rent it multiple times) Ahem...no. Ain't happenin' here!

[Anna><>]

Friday's back on youtube! I don't know if it's official, but there's a pretty good version on there.

[bookworm]

Friday's back on youtube! I don't know if it's official, but there's a pretty good version on there.

That is an unsanctioned reupload. I’m sure it will be removed once it is noticed.

In the meantime, here’s Saturday. Sort of.



Not really.

[Termite]

First, since when is ‘you’re plastic’ a compliment?

Actually, he says 'you're classic'.

At least these people can sing....