YouTube Copyright School (Happy Tree Friends)
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You are obliged to watch this video because you got a copyright strike on YouTube, and you have to take trivia questions on the law of copyright!
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YouTube Copyright School is a lecture video starring the cast of Happy Tree Friends teaching users about Copyright law of the United States and YouTube's policies on the subject.
Plot
The new Lumpy and the Lumpettes movie has been released in theaters, and Russell can't wait to see it. He uses his iPhone to record the movie, but an usher scolds him that he is "stealing somebody else's content." A lecturer tells Russell about the dangers of copyright infringement, letting him know that he could get sued and banned from YouTube. The offscreen lecturer also teaches Russell about the law of copyright.
Why It Should Get Copyright Striked
- This video is considered to be very outdated nowadays. Although YouTube copyright was still a very annoying issue in 2011, YouTube has changed a lot since then and many features have been changed and removed over the years. Making this video is pretty much useless, for the most part.
- It contains notable errors and false claims.
- Lumpy forgets to source his video while sending a copyright strike to Russell's copy of the video. This would cause Lumpy's claim to get rejected.
- Takedown requests are not fast, as it sometimes takes a few days to a week for the video to get taken down.
- People record many videos in the theater for movie clips and opening logos before the movie comes out to spoil the movie before it goes to DVD. Plus, YouTube barely bothers to remove them.
- Happy Tree Friends is not a good teaching source to talk about copyright. This source would be better fit for a video from a more appropriate channel, such as Vsauce.
- This proves that YouTube says animation is only for kids, which is clearly false and could thus land children into Elsagate territory.
- Not to mention, this video could encourage children to watch the Happy Tree Friends series just after watching the video since the video is aimed at a younger audience, which is a major red flag because Happy Tree Friends as a whole contains extreme violence and gore.
- Russell somehow doesn't die from getting crushed by the copyright law card or getting attacked by the piranhas, which is very ironic, since Happy Tree Friends was notorious for its violence and its graphic content. This misses the entire point of the series' notoriety.
- Since this video was likely aimed at an audience younger than the usual Happy Tree Friends demographic, this could be justified.
- Ironically enough, YouTube didn't even credit the creators of Happy Tree Friends for the animation or Mondo Media, their production company, which makes YouTube hypocritical for breaking their own rules.
- Despite being faithful, the animation slightly downgrades from the source show.
Redeeming Qualities
- Good ending: Russell learns his lesson at the end and has to create his video where he sings an original song while juggling.
- On that topic, it is at least one of the few Happy Tree Friends episodes to end on a good note, unlike other episodes like "Wishy Washy" and "Tongue in Cheek".
- Despite being as terrible as it is, it at least has good intentions to teach people about the danger of copyright infringement.
- The animation from the original show is decent, despite the flaw on WINTGKBRABFL#6.
Reception
"YouTube Copyright School" was panned even by show fans and holds a 3.4/10 rating on IMDB.[1] In his "Animated Atrocities" review of the video, The Mysterious Mr. Enter claims that "it is like the Annoying Orange talking about bullying, and YouTube is just using [the Happy Tree Friends] for their innocent designs."[2]
Trivia
- A portion of the clip was featured on Nighttime with Stossel in the episode "It's My Idea". After showing a clip, host John Stossel remarks: "Sounds like you will get punished if people complain to you that you are stealing their content."[3]
- When you get a strike, you can "attend Copyright School" on YouTube Studio, where you have to watch the video and answer a trivia