YouTube Pulls NSW Premier's Clip After Label Files Copyright Claim

NSW Premier Mike Baird has been forced to curtail his expedition into the world of online comedy after US-based music-industry giant Warner/Chappell filed a copyright claim with YouTube over a video in which Baird read out mean tweets about himself and featured two of the publishing house's songs.

R.E.M's Everybody Hurts and Taylor Swift's Shake It Off were both included for apparently unauthorised use in the now-pulled 'Mike Baird reads Mean Tweets' clip — the concept for which also isn't that original, being a staple feature of American late-night program Jimmy Kimmel Live — which (conjecturally) was likely a pre-election strategy devised by, as ABC reports, the premier's fresh new digital media specialist (NSW goes to the polls next month).

The video was pulled down by YouTube overnight (AEST), with the state premier tweeting this morning that it had been removed and that he was "working with YouTube and Warner to resolve".

"Fact: everybody hurts, sometimes," he tweeted.

Despite Baird's official link now directing to a default YouTube copyright claim page, plenty of other users were swift on the uptake to re-upload the clip not just on that platform but other streaming services (plus a couple of broadcasters have their own embeds), so with a pretty loose Google you should be able to find a copy of it.

You know, if you've never seen someone equate a politician with the devil or suggest that their wife mightn't be into them before.