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YouTube removes original "Rickroll" video due to terms of use violation

Tom Warren
24 February 2010 - 07:50
68 Comments
Liked this (3)

UPDATE: YouTube has confirmed the removal was a mistake. For more information and a comment from Rick Astley's manager please see our follow up story.

The Interwebs came together in a collective gasp on Wednesday as it was discovered that YouTube removed the original "Rickroll" video that has clocked up 30 million views to date.

For those not familiar with the term "Rickroll" or "Rickrolling", it's a famous Internet meme involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up". The phenomenon began at Internet image board 4chan and soon spread more widely. Internet users typically send the URL of the video to another user and the practice results in the person being "Rickrolled".

The original video can usually be found here, but currently it displays "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation." Google and YouTube spokespeople were not immediately available for comment.

Thanks to GeekAdos for the news tip

Comments (68)

  1. ObiWanToby - 24 February 2010 - 07:53

    Wow, the video that started it all...

    Never gonna give you up...

  2. +/- Razorfold - 24 February 2010 - 09:54

    ...never gonna let you down...

  3. +Ridlas - 24 February 2010 - 17:13

    /- Razorfold said,
    ...never gonna let you down...

    never gonna go arround

  4. Sonic. - 24 February 2010 - 17:32

    Ridlas said,

    never gonna go arround

    AND HURT YOU!!

  5. XerXis - 24 February 2010 - 08:00

    stupid, Rick Astley loved the renewed attention it was giving him. They will never learn, do they?

  6. +da00 - 24 February 2010 - 08:57

    XerXis said,
    stupid, Rick Astley loved the renewed attention it was giving him. They will never learn, do they?

    Actually he wasnt really a big fan of the whole rickroll thing.

  7. bobbit - 24 February 2010 - 11:50

    da00 said,

    Actually he wasnt really a big fan of the whole rickroll thing.

    Says who? I remember him saying he loved the idea in an interview...

  8. +warwagon - 25 February 2010 - 01:13

    da00 said,

    Actually he wasnt really a big fan of the whole rickroll thing.

    Yet he showed up in a parade and rick rolled everyone.

  9. 0V3RS1GHT - 24 February 2010 - 08:02

    Unbelievable. The song that put me to sleep every night.. what am I supposed to listen to now??

  10. Noveed - 24 February 2010 - 08:02

    Gutted, what a shame...

    Never gonna let you down...

  11. EzeAris - 24 February 2010 - 10:16

    0V3RS1GHT said,
    Unbelievable. The song that put me to sleep every night.. what am I supposed to listen to now??

    I don't know is the end of the Internet as we know it now.

  12. 216 - 24 February 2010 - 14:02

    0V3RS1GHT said,
    Unbelievable. The song that put me to sleep every night.. what am I supposed to listen to now??

    Haha dude you were quoted on this CNET article http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10458847-36.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

  13. +Cupcakes - 24 February 2010 - 08:18

    It took them that long to decide to take it down? It should be left back up..

  14. Ryoken - 24 February 2010 - 13:24

    Cupcakes said,
    It took them that long to decide to take it down? It should be left back up..
    I bet someone with legal rights finally complained.

  15. LiquidSolstice - 24 February 2010 - 08:31

    Utterly retarded. Glad to see it gone.

  16. badblood - 24 February 2010 - 08:36

    Aww, shame!

  17. Neopimp - 24 February 2010 - 08:39

    i agree i kinda hated it, when for the fact you would find a video you've been looking for play it and get rickroll'd bit of an annoyance imo glad it's gone.

  18. Mike Brown - 24 February 2010 - 08:41

    There's still loads of them still up though.

  19. +Relativity_17 - 24 February 2010 - 08:55

    Seriously, the front page article needs to link to a rickroll site instead of this page.

    It would be legendary.

  20. EzeAris - 24 February 2010 - 10:17

    Relativity_17 said,
    Seriously, the front page article needs to link to a rickroll site instead of this page.

    It would be legendary.

    +1

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