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is no longer available on YouTube. Not just a few clips have been taken down, but the whole account has been suspended. Why? A series of DMCA takedown notices from Google nemesis Viacom, naturally. I spoke to Mahalo Daily producer Tyler Crowley, who explained that he received a number of violation notices in quick succession, triggering YouTube's "three strikes, you're out" account suspension policy — even though Mahalo Daily is part of the YouTube partner program. What crime against intellectual property did Mahalo Daily commit?
After reviewing the episodes, Crowley found that the were nearly all shot at the Spike TV Guy's Choice award show, a Viacom event to which the crew was invited. (Even we posted some footage of their interview with MySpace vixen Tila Tequila). Looking up the contact info on the takedown notices, Crowley noticed that the issuer was just five blocks away from the Mahalo office in Santa Monica, and after some phone calls was assured it would all be back online shortly.
Under the language of the DMCA, rightsholders can be held liable for issuing improper takedown notices. Mahalo, however, won't be taking Viacom to court. Instead, Crowley chose to "insist that they buy us sushi." And not just the cheap stuff — he's looking to dine on abalone.
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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.