YouTube yanks Olympics Opening Ceremony video
- REVIEW/UPDATE [08/08/2008]: Opening Ceremony reviews are coming in from around the world...
-- UPDATE: NBC's opening ceremony telecast sets ratings record...
YouTube has yanked the supposedly sneakily shot footage of the Olympics Opening Ceremony, citing a copyright violation request.
The footage was from a South Korean TV station that filmed a dress rehearsal for the games without explicit permission. Olympic organizers are complaining that the images should be kept private. The clips show a massive display that crosses the art of the Chinese Opera, Cirque du Soleil, Zhang Yimou and Pink Floyd.
NBC Sports PR reps in China did not return requests for comment, though surely the network cannot be happy about the leak. NBC is hyping the Opening Ceremony as the most spectacular ever produced, featuring about 15,000 performers. The Ceremony kicks off the most extensively covered Games in history, totaling 3,600 hours of NBC Universal programming. A successful Opening Ceremony can give a network one of its highest ratings all year and helps jumpstart viewership for the rest of the Games.
Though YouTube yanked the footage, the video is still available on some sites (though probably not for those trying to access it from the Olympic Village).
Man, if Hollywood can't trust China to prevent a video from being bootlegged, who can they trust?
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