Death Cab Videos Unavailable on Own Site

Straight from a particularly Kafka-esque chapter in the Long, Sad Saga of Music Copyright comes news that Death Cab for Cutie’s own videos are unavailable on their site. Reason? Warner Music’s takedown notice caused YouTube to remove the videos.

The result is that DCfC’s site now has no DCfC videos because it depended on YouTube to host and stream them. Now that they’re gone from YouTube, no vids.

Warner Music has been keeping itself very busy as of late by sending YouTube takedown notices for videos it believes are unauthorized, and its zeal has now caused a bit of embarrassment for one of its own artists. The band Death Cab for Cutie had posted several of its videos–found via YouTube–to its official website, but fans found over the weekend that they couldn’t watch them… due to a copyright claim from Death Cab for Cutie’s own record label, Warner Music. The blooper left the band red-faced (it has since removed the embeds from the site)–and it highlights how crazy the DMCA takedown game has become.

Thanks to Ars for notice of this story.