Copyright Laws & “Read It” Parody

This is a news story coming out of my backyard, so I had to share!  The Lansdowne Public Library teen group created a parody of Michael  Jackson’s famous song, “Beat It” and called it “Read It.”  The teens created their own music video encouraging people to read physical books, e-books, anything – it doesn’t matter just read!  But, three days after the video was aired on YouTube, Sony/ATV Music Publishing blocked from YouTube.

Finally, after Abbe Klebanoff, head of public services for the library, spent a week lobbying Sony executives and the Michael Jackson estate to allow the video to be available on YouTube the company finally relented.  Klebanoff’s argument – the video was educational!  The library itself was using it – not to make money, but as a way to encourage kids, teens, and even adults to read (not even to use the library!).  The video, as of Saturday afternoon had over 11,000!  Hopefully everyone who gets a chance to see it will be motivated to read!

Great job Lansdowne teens!  The video rocks!  Check out the video on YouTube.

Check out the local news articles, here when the video got banned and here when the video was re-released.