YouTube Temporarily Pulled Bad Lip Reading Of The Force Awakens Over Copyright Claim

There was a great disturbance in the Force, and it was a drag for everyone.

Just hours after a hilarious Bad Lip Reading of The Force Awakens was posted to YouTube, it was removed due to a bogus copyright-takedown claim, according to Variety.

The six-minute spoof of the blockbuster featured Mark Hamill doing an amazing voiceover impression of his Star Wars co-star Harrison Ford. It was removed sometime before 7PM EST on Thursday (April 6), and it was unavailable until just before noon on Friday. It's back up again now.

YouTube cited a copyright claim by New York-based Dramatists Play Service, which publishes and licenses plays by new and established playwrights.

In an email to Variety, the creator of Bad Lip Reading said efforts were being made to restore the video. "The people who made the claim (Dramatists Play Service) have zero grounds and one can't help but assume it was done maliciously," he wrote.

Dramatists Play Service said on its Twitter that the takedown notice was made in error, and that the group has no copyright claims to the Bad Lip Reading video. "We are aware of an erroneous claim made by our org to YouTube regarding the video's copyright and are looking into how this occurred," Dramatists Play Service said. The company added, "We have no claim on any works in the video and will be working with YouTube to get the video reinstated ASAP."

YouTube allegedly implemented a new policy last year that would curb this kind of situation. The Google-owned video site said it would let videos subject to disputed copyright claims remain online and generate ad revenue while disputes were being evaluated. Apparently, that didn't kick in here.

Bad Lip Reading, which launched in 2011, is a legit operation and is affiliated with Disney's Maker Studios. It has teamed with Disney on previous projects, including a High School Musical parody in partnership with Disney XD.

Thankfully, the video is back up again, so we can all enjoy watching Kylo Ren and his finger puppet.