I never thought in 2008 I’d be talking about Weird Al Yankovic and MTV at the center of a controversy, but these are strange times.

Weird Al’s 2006 parody of the RIAA, “Don’t Download This Song,” which features authorities shooting down a young boy who downloads a song off of “Morpheus or Grokster or Limewire or KaZaA,” is the subject of the controversy. On MTV’s new video site, which features just about every music video that has ever been made, actually bleeps out the names of “Morpheus or Grokster or Limewire or KaZaA” (don’t worry, it’s early in the song if you want to hear it).

This is a great move by MTV. This way, anybody who watches the video will not be aware of any of the sites that could help them download music. If they had not bleeped this, undoubtedly the flood gates would have opened up. Millions of Weird Al fans would be flocking to file sharing sites and the music industry would dry up in days.

At least they have put up thousands of videos, which is very cool of them. Time to get with the program. It’s a good first step. Now, to quit kow-towing with the RIAA and maybe they can regain some sense of legitimacy.

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