A new development in the continuing saga of Paula Abdul’s intoxicated appearance on KCPQ-TV’s morning show earlier this month here in Seattle. RedHerring reports that Fox ordered YouTube to remove the clips, although a quick breeze through YouTube reveals plenty of the clips still up and running — one has over 2 million views. I have to ask, can Fox order the removal of clips it doesn’t technically own? KCPQ is a Fox affiliate that’s owned by Tribune, not Fox Broadcasting. I imagine Fox would argue that it owns the satellite interview portion of the video. And that’s probably the same argument it used to ask KCPQ to pull the clip off its website shortly after it aired (KCPQ complied for few days). “What Fox runs the risk of is using copyright law as a form of censorship,†said Van Baker, an analyst at Gartner Media Service, of Fox’s order to YouTube. (Full disclosure: I work for KING-TV, a competitor to KCPQ-TV.)
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