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Legal
Ark disappointed by Friday takedown
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 20 June 2011
The company that created Rebecca Black’s mind-numbing YouTube hit ‘Friday’ has criticised the aspiring pop teen’s family for issuing a takedown notice that means the song has been removed from the video sharing website, depriving the world of the glory that exists in its very shitness.
As previously reported, there is a mini-dispute going on as to who owns the various copyrights in the viral phenomenon, which Black’s mother paid Ark Music Factory to write and record. The Blacks requested YouTube takedown the video last week, seemingly after Ark – whose account the track was linked to – put the song behind a paywall, albeit for a very short time, without consulting the teen star in the making, or her mum.
According to TMZ, the Blacks retaliated by failing to give Ark any notice of its takedown order. The gossip site quotes a rep from Ark as saying: “We’re disappointed, having been in good faith negotiations with Rebecca Black and her representatives for months regarding any open issues. There’s been an ongoing, open dialogue with our company. So we were blindsided to get a takedown notice – with no notice – alleging copyright infringement instead of a call or email from Rebecca’s representatives”. I’m not sure its possible to get a notice “without notice”, but I think we all know what Mr/Ms Ark means.
I also think we all want this to end up in a very public, very bitter court battle, don’t we? Or is that just me? Anyway, the Ark rep seemed to play down the chances of that, albeit in a slightly patronising tone, adding: “We are going to continue to take the high road and work out the complaint as soon as possible”.
