Today, I saw a tweet from @roflcon that floored me. It read, “Crank Dat ROFLCon taken down from YouTube! http://tinyurl.com/5v9mxo” (twitter link). I clicked through and saw the screenshot of the takedown notice, and Kevin’s video (attached here).
“Crank Dat ROFLcon” was made at ROFLcon by Kevin Driscoll during his presentation, “Work it, Move it, Bang it, Bump it: Crank Dat Online Dance Craze“. The presentation talks about Soulja Boy Tell Em’s rise to stardom via his heavy use of online video on YouTube, his fan interactions, his community, his music and the encouragement to learn the infamous dance and put videos on YouTube. You could think of the entire thing as an hour long interactive advertisement of the success of Soulja Boy. At the end it was capped off by everyone (myself included) attempting to learn the dance, and it was videotaped for putting back up on YouTube. We did a really bad job, but it’s a funny video with some kinda big internet people in it, including Bre Pettis, iJustine, Brookers and other totally cool people!
Hundreds, if not thousands of videos get taken down from YouTube daily. What’s the problem? Isn’t this a copyright violation as the takedown notice claims? Well yes, it could be viewed as a copyright violation. Yet, the slap in the face comes from the fact that Soulja Boy (or more presumably his record company and lawyers) need to remember where they are coming from. Without YouTube this kid would be nothing. Without people making videos of themselves dancing to his video, he would be nothing. This video wasn’t an attempt as disenfranchising Soulja Boy, or taking revenue from his record company. This is what made him famous. These are his fans. These people in the crowd ARE the influences. Copyright violation or not, its also the encouraged norm for his videos and music. In his own music video he even shows himself dancing in front of a huge screen with people’s home-made videos playing behind him. Half of his videos are about people learning his dance and spreading it online. In his posts he talks about and encourages such things seemingly. Not once have I heard him complain on YouTube about people taking his music and that they need to stop making videos of themselves.
This is akin to Jimi Hendrix going onstage at Woodstock and telling everyone that they are pothead druggies that need to get real jobs, join the army and take a shower. It’s a complete slap in the face and totall out of character. I don’t get it. I’m going to assume that it’s his overzealous lawyers and record company that are at fault and not Soulja Boy. However, he needs to keep in mind that these people are his representation. They are extensions of him, and its not a good excuse. He needs to keep them in check, and work with the right people. We can learn from John McCain that having poor representation and the wrong people around you can kill your career and people’s opinions of you.
So Soulja Boy, please tell your record company to send Kevin and ROFLcon an email to apologize for the mistake, and thank him for giving a presentation like that which highlighted your success.
UPDATE: Other bloggers have picked this up too. Fred Benenson’s blog had a good writeup and Rebecca Corliss also wrote about it. I sent a YouTube message to Soulja Boy asking him to check with his representation to see what’s the deal. I noticed that even in his YouTube Live thing the other day that they seemed to mention and encourage other people learning the dance and making videos. This is absurd. I want answers.
Original Video (still on Blip.tv for the time)
