by Dan Harmon

There's been a heavy media blitz over the last few months focusing on the internet as TV's usurper, with a lot of attention being given to Channel 101 via Andy Samberg, Yacht Rock and House of Cosbys. You may have seen articles popping up in the New York Times, New Yorker, Newsweek, Spin and Rolling Stone, to name the ones I can remember.

The Wall Street Journal recently contacted me for a statement regarding House of Cosbys, the cease and desist from Cosby's attorneys, etc. Since few of us probably read the Wall Street Journal, and since they'll likely use little to none of my full statement, and since everyone kept complaining about that old Notley's Notes article still being on the front page, I thought I'd post my statement here:

Channel 101 is a non-profit venue. In fact, it's anti-profit; it costs me thousands per year, money I consider well spent because it provides passionate young creators like Justin Roiland a direct connection to a starving audience, sidestepping America's hopelessly cumbersome, creatively bankrupt TV industry.

When I received a cease and desist from Cosby's attorneys, my initial response was to deactivate the video because I was sad that we had offended a brilliant comedian. That's how naive I was.

Then I ran into a certain legendary producer at a party who yelled at me for rolling over, told me there were important principles at stake, so I violated the order and put the videos back up, effectively calling Cosby's attorneys' bluff.

So they threatened C.I. Host, the company that houses our server, a company with nothing to gain from principles, and C.I. Host told us to take House of Cosbys down under threat of pulling the plug.

I once again deactivated the videos at channel101.com, but as anyone under 70 knows, you can just google House of Cosbys and get it from any of a thousand sources. People that try to stop it remind me of Fred Flintstone, racing through Bedrock, lasooing people's TV aerials to keep Wilma from finding out he went bowling. When you put something on the internet, its distribution isn't limited by some cigar-chomping mogul; if it makes people happy, it goes "viral." It can't be undone, it can't be erased. In that regard, there may be hope for the future of American culture, as the misguided Beverly Hills network executive becomes obsolete and the artist becomes accountable only to those he truly seeks to please. When there's less profit to be made in an area, the profiteers get bored. They release their slime-coated death grip and move on, making room once again for creativity. That's my hope.

The actions of Cosby's legal team are somewhat laughable, somewhat sad and ultimately symbolic of a quantum shift in the business of entertainment: The internet is breaking a zillion dollar pinata, free candy is flying everywhere and the candy companies are understandably upset. You can't control digital information the way you can control radios, television and movies. Lawyers threatening web sites, the FCC clamoring to regulate cable, record labels making speeches about mp3s: I hear it all as a death rattle. They have my sympathy but not my respect.

Booyah!