I once made a flash animation for a record company that was taken down by the same company for copyright infringement
Back in the early days of B3ta flash videos were the hip thing. It was mainly because limited bandwidth meant video didn't work that great and a flash item would play properly, being say 500k.

So there was this brief golden age where record companies would actually pay hard cash to people like me to cut out some jpegs and make them wobble in time to the beat. Madness. Glorious madness.

A major record company got in touch and invited me to their offices where a very pleasant (but not very young) woman in a leather jacket played me a rap record. She tapped her fingers to the beat whilst I attempted to look enthusiastic about what to me sounded like utter drivel. Someone moaning about people on Pop Idol being a bit rubbish. As a satirical target it felt weak. I know they are rubbish - so I don't watch the show and really fail to care.

"Brilliant" I said, "I'll make a flash video. £5k you say?' Blimey. £5k for some old tosh. That'll mean I won't actually have to look for a job for a month or two and still be able to fiddle about running B3ta.

A week or so later I'm having a panic about what they want - most of the stuff I've done that's been popular consisted of things like satanic kittens exhorting people to kill themselves - I can't really see how to make this work, so phone up my friend Dave to help out. We bash some stuff together and I return to the office.

"Hmm", she says, "I've looked at B3ta and you're pulling your punches."

"Oh you want dancing cocks and Will Young being buggered by Simon Cowell then?"

"Exactly."

Two weeks later I return. It opens with Will Young being buggered. There's dancing cocks AND a really embarrassingly weak scene of S Club 7 being flushed down the loo.

They called the whole office to watch. 30 people stood around. They gave me not just polite applause but whoops and cheering. "This is exactly it. You've nailed it Rob."

Then a phone call. "Rob, the legal department can't clear this. However we still want it to go out, so if you can stick it out via B3ta that would be great."

OK I think. Haven't really got much choice as I was still waiting to be paid. So out it went. I forgot about it until two weeks later when I got a letter from their legal department saying I was infringing their copyright and I must take it down ASAP else the threat of proper legal action.

I phone the lawyers. I tell them I had specific instructions to stick this out from their company. "No you didn't", they reply, "We've spoken to the department. They told you not to." What? But they did!

So I phone the people who commissioned me. They were very very cagey. The best I could understand it was that the legal department said no, they went round them, then didn't fess up to the legals and blamed me.

Ho hum. I'm not bitter. I got paid but I don't think I've ever had such an extreme contrast of reactions from a client in the space of a couple of weeks for the same item of work. To be cheered (almost carried aloft in the office) to nearly being sued. Hooray for the mentalness of the record industry circa 2003 as they struggled to deal with the internet I guess.
( rob, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 13:51, 22 replies)

chthonic has a similar story in the question header.

( Pig Bodine., Fri 3 Aug 2012, 13:56, closed)

chthonic told it better though.

( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Fri 3 Aug 2012, 13:58, closed)

He was sure to make it clear it was a group effort by using the word "we".
People like a team player.
( Pig Bodine., Fri 3 Aug 2012, 14:01, closed)

My fuckup for not setting the question as "rob"


Edit: Edited. Happy now? :)
( chthonic, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 14:22, closed)

Wait a minute, you can post as Rob?
Is it like in Equilibrium and Rob died decades ago but you continue to create posts as him in order to maintain the status quo?
( 2 Can Chunder Word to your mums, I came to prod bums, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 14:28, closed)

Mike is God
he can do anything
( rob, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 14:40, closed)

Can he FREE THE CHINA ONE! and BRING BACK DING!?
Can he UNBAN OUR MENTAL SAFFIE BOU?
Can he MAKE BALDMONKEY TOP-MOD?
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Fri 3 Aug 2012, 14:44, closed)

I can do all those things and more
but like most gods, refuse to do so because proof denies faith.
( chthonic, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 15:13, closed)

HUN DAN!
*Dogeyes*
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Fri 3 Aug 2012, 15:37, closed)

We have always been at war with Eurasia

( chthonic, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 15:04, closed)

He should sue him for copyright infringement.

( Slippery Mick ‏, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 13:58, closed)

click
I thought this was hilarious. Reminded me of a quote I read many seconds ago.
(justin(e), Fri 3 Aug 2012, 13:59, closed)

TL, only read some of it.
Can someone give me a quick synopsis?
( 2 Can Chunder Word to your mums, I came to prod bums, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 14:20, closed)

Guy does a thing.
Nearly got in trouble.
( sir_spicious2000 Crap I've watched: www.filmplop.blogspot.com/, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 20:20, closed)

thing
happens
(InflammableHound may be recorded for training porpoises, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 23:25, closed)

What a bunch of arseholes.
I'm sure they, as many people seem to, thought that because this was something you created on of those those COMPOTERZ that it took you all of a few mouse clicks to create and wasn't a big deal.

I HATE freelance flash stuff, I have to remind the client time and time again that keyframing smooth animations takes a loooooong time so thats why I need exact direction on something, not just, "SHOW IT FLOWING TO THE CLOUD'.
( Victor Meldrew, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 14:21, closed)

youtube link please
Must be about long enough for no one to care anymore. I'd love to see it.

(If you have any problems, I promise to pay the legal bills. Promise.)
(justin(e), Fri 3 Aug 2012, 14:28, closed)

there is no youtube link
it's pre youtube etc - no idea if it exists in any form

edit. Oooh, A version with the offending music removed replaced is here. No idea if the original is still around. For a bit someone mirrored it.

It's still shit:
www2.b3ta.com/popidle/
( rob, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 14:29, closed)

What the actual fuck?

( Victor Meldrew, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 14:42, closed)

Sad thing is
despite me knowing the content, I just clicked it in the office.
( chthonic, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 15:06, closed)

aye...
me too....
(Lip Up Fatty Fatty Reggae still loves BBQ food on, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 16:11, closed)

I bet you had fun looking for those pictures of erect penises.

( 2 Can Chunder Word to your mums, I came to prod bums, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 19:47, closed)

Haha, I remember that, it got passed around our office at the time :)

( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 3 Aug 2012, 16:26, closed)

I'm glad you at least got paid for it.
Life in business as a trusting individual who expect people to honour their word will end up with you having to learn some pretty hard lessons, and then have to adopt the tactics of a paranoid hard-assed twat to ensure you don't get screwed over and protect your own interests.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Fri 3 Aug 2012, 23:58, closed)

Donkeys and v-signs
Did anything ever come of that introducingmonday comedy genius? For those who don't remember, there was some shit “creative” company called introducingmonday (I think, I was a long time ago), and they failed to register the .co.uk version of their name. So it got registered by some merry prankster who uploaded a flash animation featuring donkeys, close ups of hands flicking the Vs, and a spazzy song that went “we've got your name, we've got your name, nghnmmm, nghmmmm, nghmmmm, we've got your name”.
(Eukanuba, Sat 4 Aug 2012, 9:40, closed)

Andy Kelk registered the name, I did the song / anim
and it wasn't a creative company but PricewaterhouseCoopers who Wikipedia describe as, "the world's largest professional services firm and the largest of the "Big Four" accountancy firms measured by 2011 revenues."
( rob, Sat 4 Aug 2012, 12:18, closed)