Beware Hollywood’s digital demolition: it’s as if your favourite films and TV shows never existed | Zach Schonfeld
www.theguardian.com
The amount of media being wiped from the internet is worrying for viewers, and industry workers who need the exposure, says journalist and critic Zach Schonfeld

Last June, fans of Comedy Central – the long-running channel behind beloved programmes such as The Daily Show and South Park – received an unwelcome surprise. Paramount Global, Comedy Central’s parent company, unceremoniously purged the vast repository of video content on the channel’s website, which dated back to the late 1990s.

  • @[email protected]English
    15•3 months ago

    Music licensing in media like this gets bullshit quickly. If it was signed in for the original run, fucking leave it.

    • @BlitzoTheOisSilentEnglish
      17•3 months ago

      I had a coworker who cited music licensing as the sole reason he can’t find his favorite show anymore: The Drew Carrey Show. Whatever schmuck owns the music licensing refuses to cooperate with the rest of the show owners, so it can’t be streamed or distributed anywhere.

      Another example would be Scrubs, most of the songs used in the show (including key moments and the OG songs were perfect for them) have been edited out and replaced because of licensing issues. Unless you’ve got the DVDs or pirated older versions, you’re stuck with the new music and it’s not the same.

      • @TotEnglish
        9•3 months ago

        I think that’s why you’d be hard pressed to find Daria in its original form too: music licensing.

      • @RoidingOldManEnglish
        4•3 months ago

        The Drew Carrey Show just finally got a streaming release a couple months ago. On Plex. All 9 seasons now.

    • @[email protected]English
      14•3 months ago

      Dude, Halo: Master Chief Collection removed a LOT of perfectly timed tracks from key moments of Halo 2, because they were Breaking Benjamin songs.

      I remember when a pair of Hunters is just about to bust open these massive gates in New Mombasa…here comes the sick instrumental from “Blow Me Away”…!

      …No, just some vaguely Halo-esque drumbeat on loop.

      The music licensing industry has pretty much always been Satan, but the sheer arrogance to think they have the right to claw audio out of existing works because they’re not getting infinite revenue out of it is a new friggin low.

      • @BuddahrifficEnglish
        4•3 months ago

        When trying to find a copy of Forza 4 (or one of them) after being disappointed with the cut down version they had on gamepass, I discovered it couldn’t be sold anymore because of a deal MS made with Porsche that eventually ran out.

        • @[email protected]English
          2•3 months ago

          Sheesh!

          Ace Combat games are also on a countdown as soon as they release, because the likenesses of the planes from the defense companies expire, so they get de-listed.

          You couldn’t do that with physical media. =\