Obviously, the debates on takedown orders that have been raging here on the Org have been mostly about Prince's material, but since this doesn't mention him directly, I thought I would post here.

In short, it's called 'YouTomb' and it offers info on what has been removed from YouTube and a peep into takedown policies.

Here is an article on the project:
http://themedium.blogs.ny...ex.html?hp

The New York Times
The Medium
May 23, 2008, 11:33 am
Online Video’s Grave Consequences
By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN

For a decent sense of which organizations are still hellbent on hand-swatting every mosquito in the copyright-violation forest, the new site YouTomb provides a valuable service. It’s a video-sharing joint, but only for videos that have been removed from YouTube — for supposed copyright violations. And other reasons.

You can search by claimants, like crabby old NBC Universal, which recently yanked “Senator McCain on Saturday Night Live Weekend Update.” The whole site is also a good reminder of what sticklers they are over at the high-minded World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.

The project comes from M.I.T., a copyright-reform-watchdog group called M.I.T. Free Culture.

(I like those “free X” locutions. “Sex: The Revolution,” on VH-1, tracks the etymology of “free love,” citing all the other things that hippies used to set free — “free store,” “free money,” “free food.” Only free love really stuck.)

The M.I.T. crowd say they want to try to make YouTube’s complex takedown ideology more transparent. You don’t get to see the video — um, then it would be taken down again, see? — but you do get to see stills from the deleted videos, and read stats about the circumstances of its disappearance. I’m still mystified, but fascinated. Take a look at YouTomb.


And the direct link:
http://youtomb.mit.edu/


[I should add that it is not a 'video-sharing joint' as the writer erroneously claims.]

It looks like a cool and much needed little project imo.
What do you think?