Who is Lionsgate associated with?

[D'Snowth]

I see that a few Classic SST clips have been removed by YouTube, but this time, they said it's because of copyright claims by Lionsgate... so what's their deal? Are they associated with somebody who released these clips on old VHSs, or are they simply being donkeys like Viacom and WB and removing clips for copyright infringement when they don't even own the rights to the content?

 

[Drtooth]

WHAT? They have NO right NO right at all. They do NOT own a single crumb of SS's library. Not a single second. If this is a gag of some sort, it's not a funny one. SS and WB (as the distributor) and maybe Viacom, since they insist that everything with that ugly little network bug is there's. Lionsgate does NOT OWN Sesame Street clips, there has never been any relationship between the two companies, and these are false copyright claims.

Sesame Worskshop has thankfully been forgiving when it came to classic clips being posted by outside users. Other than the ones falsely claimed to by by Viacom, who doesn't even give a crap about SW and just wants to kill everything with their logo, there have not been any claims by ANYONE that SS clips are unrightfully theirs.

I ask any classic clip posters to dispute these claims if they threaten to take them down.

Has anyone been banned yet?

 

[D'Snowth]

Has anyone been banned yet?

The only one I've heard about being banned recently was NantoVision for posting the Muppet Meeting Films... not sure that's connected, but he did come back.

But yeah, I'm serious. Just this morning I went to watch Ray Charles' rendition of "Bein' Green" from the 20th anniversary SST special, and there it was "This video contains content from Lionsgate, who has blocked it on copyright grounds." I thought wait a minute, that ain't right... who are these guys claiming they own that content? It almost sounds like all the screwing around Viacom's been doing, that Mike Mozart explained in detail about here recently.

 

[Oscarfan]

This should answer your question!

 

[D'Snowth]

This should answer your question!

Boy, they're swift.

 

[Drtooth]

This should answer your question!

Good, yet confusing news. Is Lionsgate going to do all the old Sesame Street footage now, or is the special owned by the Jim Henson company? Lionsgate is pretty nasty and unforgiving when it comes to stuff they claim ownership of (read "stuff they own DVD rights, ESPECIALLY stuff long out of print"). And if somehow they claim EVERY single clip of every single SS segment they intend to us...or at least that is present on the DVD, we're going to see a LOT of SS stuff blocked.

SW has been forgiving of this so far. There were many opportunities for them to pull all the Square One, Electric Company, and ESPECIALLY Sesame Street stuff, and they haven't. To have a licensing company claim ownership over the actual company that owns it is crummy enough (videos can be claimed by- and I'm not making this up- third party companies that are actually the distribution company of a sub-license). If they claim any segment that even appeared in the special, we're going to miss a lot of old school stuff.

I am glad it's coming, don't get me wrong. And if the cheap little fuzzy aging VHS tape YT videos of the special are gone for the real thing, I won't shed a tear. But if this effectively ends fan based SS content (clips SW doesn't put up itself, or can't due to music rights, or complete versions they don't put up themselves), it's gonna be a real shame.

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm wondering about my having Big Bird's birthday special posted on YouTube...

I doubt this one would be released on DVD anytime, and if it was and Lionsgate distributed it, and removed my vids, I'm wondering if I should dispute it, because SW is actually letting me the special posted, so long as they receive the statistics.

 

[Princeton]

I'm not sure if this makes a difference, but Lionsgate was somehow affiliated with the DVD release of the last season of Fraggle Rock.

 

[Drtooth]

Lionsgate distributes Jim Henson Company products now, from Fraggle Rock (they were distributing for Hit during the release of the 3rd season, I believe) to Jim Henson Hour segments owned by JHC (everything but the Muppet Central Control segments).

The ownership of this special is confusing. It aired as part of the JHH, and somehow, despite the fact that SW owns all the characters in the special, it seems JHC somehow owns the rights or something to this special. If you look at the spin of the cover art, you can not so clearly see the Jim Henson Company Logo on the side of the spine.

That said, they could have WAITED for this special to at LEAST be released and on store shelves before they started blocking the videos... but at least it means we're getting a GOOD copy of it.

I REALLY hope that classic footage ISN'T part of the bonus features. Last thing we need is them claiming ownership for those sketches and pulling stuff down.

 

[BuddyBoy600alt]

They don't own Sesame Street. They deleted Mr. Hooper's death clip posted by Hoopersghost.