Why do movie companies pull trailers from YouTube?

[volatile]

I was browsing YouTube for movie trailers today and kept finding videos that had been removed due to copyright claims. (eg:http://kylemacpro.blogspot.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/browse?&sess...tmzJsABbYWtUobjYzEYHq3VPxdZBekJinT7_-JedbcQ==)

So here I am, wondering what possible reason film companies would have for removing what is essentially free advertising for their product, and what logical hoops and convoluted meetings the movie industry goes through to reach the conclusion that having trailers for their films on one of the most popular sites on the Internet is a bad thing.

 

[ScroogeANDMarley]

Short answer - Because of copywright laws. If the owner of the material knows that it is being used without permission and doesn't do anything about it within a certain period of time, it is legally construed as giving away the material.

 

[volatile]

Short answer - Because of copywright laws. If the owner of the material knows that it is being used without permission and doesn't do anything about it within a certain period of time, it is legally construed as giving away the material.

Oh, I understand that YouTubers uploads are technically illegal. I just don't understand the rationale that leads companies to spend money on lawyers to prevent information about their product from circulating - and information the companies themselves created specifically for advertising their products!

It's even more strange when you consider that these companies actually pay other companies to do what YouTube does for free (and, often, more successfully).

I guess my answer to your point is "So what?!". So what if they give away their movie trailers? It actively benefits them to do so, as far as I can tell...

 

[WildCat]

I have no idea why they pull them, I agree that it's stupid to pull free advertising. I guess it depends on the feelings of the copyright holder. For excample, you can find all kinds of South Park videos on youtube, but no Simpsons.

Doesn't seem to hurt South Park at all...

 

[scratchy]

The only reason i can think of is that the trailer is outside the owners control, with the risk of getting nonflattering comments about the movie.

 

[JWideman]

Short answer - Because of copywright laws. If the owner of the material knows that it is being used without permission and doesn't do anything about it within a certain period of time, it is legally construed as giving away the material.

No. You're making one of the common confusions between copyright and trademark.

 

[Alt+F4]

Forget YouTube, go here for trailers:

http://www.movie-list.com/

 

[Ryokan]

I was going to show a friend the trailer to the upcoming Resident Evil anime movie a few days ago, but all the ones on YouTube had been pulled on request by Sony.

I was very confused by that. Don't they want people to see the trailer and be enticed? I know I would want the trailer to my movie spread as much as possible.

Forget YouTube, go here for trailers:

http://www.movie-list.com/

Didn't have the trailer for Resident Evil: Degeneration. I guess it only has trailers for American mainstream movies, huh? Then it's no good to me at all.

Search results for: Degeneration

No results found.

Did you mean: DeGeneres?

Hell, no! No, I didn't.

 

[aries]

I don't get it either.... It's free advertising for their terrific products...

I understand of course the whole idea of copyright claims and such. It just seems silly to me not to let the movie trailers continue to be on youtube - to spread the word - or movies - for free.

At least a game company such as Bioware seems to have gotten the idea. Stuff from X06for their recent game Mass Effect can be found on youtube as can other trailers for Mass Effect. And the great thing about this is that Bioware doesn't seem to care. [Or maybe they even upload the trailers etc. themselves to Youtube?].

Then again, the movie industry tried to ban television in the 1950's and the videoplayers in the 1970's so that they don't want their trailers for movies (or games) on Youtube seems to be in-character for the movie entrertainment industry, simply not recognizing the potential of this if they embrace this downloading movie thing correctly from the start.

Of course, they want to get the most people to view their movie trailers, they just want you to go the game's or movie's website, not youtube's...

 

[Moon-Spinner]

Of course, they want to get the most people to view their movie trailers, they just want you to go the game's or movie's website, not youtube's...

This was along the lines of the only reason that I can think of seems even remotely legitimate. The movie industry wants to squeeze every dollar out of their product, and controlling where the trailer plays is useful toward controlling what other advertisements they can throw at you. If you have to go to their website to see the trailer, there will be other devices there to entice you, whether it be products to sell, more advertisements, or links to other movies... etc.

I remember reading how die-hard "Star Wars" fans went to the theaters to watch the new trailer for the upcoming "Phantom Menace" movie, then left after the trailer was finished (which seems extreme to me anyway). Gee, imagine the lost revenue if that trailer ended up on YouTube!!!

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

My guess is that it's because it's a slippery slope between trailers and the contents of their film such as clips, deleted scenes, DVD extras, etc. The whole film, actually.

I'd also guess it was to stop the editing and splice jobs that could be done with the footage from their trailers.

 

[Ryokan]

At least a game company such as Bioware seems to have gotten the idea. Stuff from X06for their recent game Mass Effect can be found on youtube as can other trailers for Mass Effect. And the great thing about this is that Bioware doesn't seem to care. [Or maybe they even upload the trailers etc. themselves to Youtube?].

Bioware is the most consumer friendly company in the history of gaming.

 

[AtomicMysteryMonster]

I wonder if it has anything to do with music rights? I doubt any of the major studios want musicians flooding them with requests for royalties from every time a traile ron Youtube gets played...

 

[volatile]

What's the point of making a trailer if you're going to actively prevent people from seeing it?

The music rights issue might be one reason, but it still doesn't make sense given that one assumes the primary point of a film company making a trailer is to ensure as many people as possible see it...

 

[Beerina]

Didn't have the trailer for Resident Evil: Degeneration. I guess it only has trailers for American mainstream movies, huh? Then it's no good to me at all.

Pull the videos because users make nasty comments? I would have thought comments like "Over 30% of Resident Evil movie reviewers died; autopsies showed it was as if they had choked due to donkey balls lodged in their throat" would have been an imrovement over actual reviews.

 

[geni]

Quality issues. You want to control how your trailer looks. The Youtube compression software messes that up. Secondly you want people to link to the trailer on your site which will improve you pagerank and increase traffic which you can then use for other things.