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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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 OPINION 
16

MLB Honchos Drop Ball on Vid Sensation

Refusing to share video of little girl's ball toss makes league look petty

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(Newser) – It was a great baseball moment when a stunned Phillies fan watched his 3-year-old daughter toss back a foul ball he had just caught. But Major League Baseball isn't playing ball with the video, Jennifer Van Grove writes at Mashable. MLB has made a copyright claim on the video, making sure all copies except its own are yanked from YouTube and elsewhere. That's robbing the video of its chance to go truly viral and delivering a PR home run for MLB, Van Grove writes.

The video was poised to become a YouTube sensation, but  it will be seen by many fewer people now that MLB has decided people can only view it by visiting their own website, where no embed code is provided to let the video be shared. "That practice," Van Grove notes, "seems pretty backwards in this day and age." To give in to the MLB's backwards ways, click the link below to watch the video.

A still from the video pulled by Major League Baseball officials.
A still from the video pulled by Major League Baseball officials.   (AssociatedPress)
A still from a video yanked from YouTube by Major League Baseball.
A still from a video yanked from YouTube by Major League Baseball.   (Allvideozdotcom)
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Phillies fan Steve Monforto talks about his daughter, who tossed back his foul-ball catch.   (AssociatedPress)

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The ball incident is one that has all the makings of an Internet hit: the catch was spectacular, the moment Emily threw the ball back is adorable, and the subsequent hug and fan cheering is memorable. - Jennifer Van Grove

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16 comments
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Timinator2K
Sep 17, 09 8:10 AM CDT
MLB obviously needs a Public Relations department...or, better yet, fire the one they might already have because they're the Anti-Public Relations Department. Don'tcha just love it when people have a clear choice to help themselves or, their business interests and decide its better to shoot themselves in both feet instead? Morons! Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
+11
IN RESPONSE:
northeast
Sep 18, 09 8:01 AM CDT
MLB needs to continue making boneheaded moves like this so that eventually, everyone loses interest in baseball and starts watching real sports. Why would anyone be watching baseball during football season?
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0
shonangreg
Sep 17, 09 9:13 AM CDT
Why does such a short clip not fall under Fair Use provisions? And if it does, the DMCA provides a way of not only getting the clip back up on youtube quickly and easily, it can also prevent MLB from ordering *any* more takedowns. I'd love to see that scenario play out. Reply
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+3
Corona_Kinq
Sep 17, 09 9:44 AM CDT
Fuck you MLB. Considering all the substance abuse scandals plaguing your organization, you'd think you'd wanna open up to the fans a little more. Reply
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+5
IN RESPONSE:
Timinator2K
Sep 17, 09 9:54 AM CDT
You sure nailed that one, CK! Sure, one little viral video serving their interests would cause MLB to collapse...who is MLB? The RIAA under different letters??
Vote up! Vote down!
+2

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