from Hacker News

Paramount Erases Mtv.com Archives, Wipes Music, Culture History After 30+ Years

by SkyMarshal on 6/25/24, 5:23 PM with 44 comments

  • by 999900000999 on 6/25/24, 7:18 PM

    No worries, at least I'm subscribed to Paramount Plus.

    Of course I can watch a classic episode of MTV cribs. Wait what's this, they only have the last three seasons!

    What about the legendary episode where Redman shows off his authentic home!

    This has to be the biggest tragedy to streaming, I can imagine in 10 years or so BoJack horseman won't be palpable to modern audiences. And since Netflix only officially released the first season on DVD, it will effectively become lost media.

  • by DemocracyFTW2 on 6/25/24, 6:49 PM

    > Not having print copies of a writer’s work is a big mistake.

    This is an important thing. People rave about how the internet gives almost everyone immediate access to so many thing, but flip a switch (or stare helplessly as a major CME is hurtling our way) and it's all gone for some amount of time or forever.

    Did the proprietors even consider and try to sell those many hours? If nothing else they could've auctioned files for private use. No-one there to make a quick buck that way?

  • by glimshe on 6/25/24, 9:43 PM

    That's why we need piracy and Reddit data hoarders. Corporations can own our history because of antiquated copyright laws created for sheet music and print books over a century ago.

  • by exe34 on 6/25/24, 7:16 PM

    i don't know much about this specific archive, but in my opinion, this kind of action should be considered criminal damage to human cultural heritage. you shouldn't have to pay to store it yourself, but you should then have to make sure somebody else gets a chance to pay for a copy.

    I've seen some YouTube creators delete their past videos when they transition. i understand the desire to distance themselves from their past persona, but again, the content itself doesn't belong to just them anymore - they should be able to profit from it if they want, but they shouldn't be able to destroy it.

  • by bring_back_sky on 6/25/24, 5:59 PM

    Oh my goodness. I grew up with these VJs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MTV_video_jockeys

  • by joshuaheard on 6/25/24, 6:11 PM

    You think they could have sold it to someone and transferred the data.

  • by spot1984 on 6/25/24, 7:22 PM

    Does anyone know how big the archives were, in terms of storage?

  • by ChrisArchitect on 6/25/24, 5:56 PM

  • by friend_and_foe on 6/26/24, 2:34 AM

    I don't understand the surprise.

    Corporations are heartless machines. Archival, history, culture, these things are not their priorities. These things are our priorities. If someone else owns your creativity, accept from day 1 that you have no say in what happens to it. Believing otherwise is delusion.

  • by goertzen on 6/25/24, 7:17 PM

    Obviously dumb, but also can’t say I even knew this existed until now.

    Was it good ?

  • by jerojero on 6/25/24, 5:56 PM

    This is why archiving is so important.

    Imo journalists should be allowed and should (honestly I don't know if they are or not, probably not) repost their stories on their own personal websites.

    You never have any assurance that the parent company that buys you will care about the same things you care about. More often than not they're looking for particular segments and everything else is just baggage.