Well, this just isn't turning out to be Lady Gaga's day (unless you consider that her HBO concert special reaped a whopping five Emmy nominations this morning. Then it's totally her day).
It’s a brash move from the Google-owned site, who risk alienating an iconic artist who has accumulated over one billion views and established herself as one of the worlds biggest recording artists. Named by Forbes in May as the world’s most powerful celebrity based on her earnings, media visibility and popularity, YouTube could be in for a backlash from her army of “Little Monsters,” a name she affectionately uses to describe her loyal group of fans.
That said, she still should have gotten appropriate permission to post the video. We live in a digital age where media is becoming more accessible through various mediums, and the appropriate digital rights need to be secured by those who use and distribute them. Team Gaga should’ve been more than informed on how to keep the right side of legal.
In any case, the Little Monsters are going to have to find a new outlet from which to get their motherly fix, as YouTube has done the unthinkable and blocked her ladyship's account.
Even more puzzling is the reason the site gave for shutting Gaga down...
Any fan who attempted to access "ladygagaofficial"—the account to which the singer (or, more likely, a Haus of Gaga underling) routinely uploads performance videos, which Gaga liberally links to on her Twitter page—in the past day has been greeted by the following, familiar death toll of a message:
"This account has been suspended due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube's copyright policy."
Huh? Isn't it normally artists who demand YouTube remove content, not the other way around? So what gives?
Well, apparently, it's just one video that caused the offense and brought down Gaga's page, after she posted her recent performance from Japan's Fuji TV's SMAP x SMAP.
The 10-minute performance featured a medley of songs from her latest album, including "Born This Way," "The Edge of Glory" and "You & I."
According to Time Out Tokyo, that, apparently, fell just this side of illegal, and the show's parent company, Media Interactive Inc., requested Tuesday that the footage be taken down for copyright infringement. And, as throngs of disappointed Little Monsters discovered this morning, YouTube obliged.
Gaga has yet to comment on the takedown, but she did tweet earlier this week about her excitement on making the appearance that seems to have cost her her channel.
"My performance+cooking show appearance on SMAP SMAP is airing now in Japan," she tweeted. "Kawaii Monsters!"The previous week, when she was actually filming the guest spot along with SMAP, an über-popular Japanese boy band and the titular hosts of the show, she even tweeted out a photo of the group.
We don't know what's going to come of the temporary suspension, but we do know one thing: It's probably best not to mess with the reigning Queen of YouTube.
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