Remember back to the giddy days of Napster? Remember how everything could be found online and for free and everyone did nothing at work other than download their favorite songs? Remember how there was a feeling that as great as it was, it was not meant to be as it was just too gosh darn great and how when it all came to a crashing end (thanks, Lars), we all somehow knew it was inevitable?
Why are we bringing this up? Because YouTube is now running into problems. Sometime over the weekend, YouTube's new overlords, Google, took down clips from Viacom related shows. Big whoops, right? Wrong. The first things that were taken down were clips from Viacom owned Comedy Central. Which means we'll no longer be able to post clips from the "Daily Show" or "The Colbert Report" or "South Park". That sucks. There are still videos on there but not nearly as plentiful as there was before. And since they're all supposedly going down within days, no time like the present to show off the "South Park" episode that makes fun of us San Franciscans (see above).
Now, before you get all pitchfork and torch on Google, it's not really their fault. Now that Google has acquired YouTube and turned YouTube from cute little Web site to major armament of an Internet Power, they are more than ever a threat. And so Viacom, wanting to crush Google, wants their stuff down so their rival can't make money off of them.
All of which means that Viacom could do what Tom Cruise and Scientology could not-- stop "South Park"