No More Rick Rolling? Oh Wait, That'll Never Happen

By PopEater Staff Posted Feb 24th 2010 04:39PM

Today, Mashable gently let the world know there will be no more Rick Rolling. No more official Rick Rolling, anyway. Sony has nixed the official clip of Astley's 1987 hit 'Never Gonna Give You Up' due to a terms of use violation.

Fortunately, searching "Rick Roll" on YouTube still turns up 72,400 hits. With all the ripping and slight tweaking of the Astley video (and, um, every video, ever?), Rick Rolling will live on as long as the Internet exists.

This news comes just days after PopEater reported OK Go's concern with tightening restrictions on embeddable licensed content. The band's frontman wondered if his group would ever see another major viral hit without embedding capabilities. We wondered if piracy will forever negate industry concerns with fair use and licensed content.

In case you need to be Rick Roll'd, the very-much-still-available video is available below.

UPDATE: Mashable is now reporting the original video is back. YouTube tells Mashable the removal was purely a mistake. Piracy loses! The original Rick Roll lives on!