The Day The Poop-sic Died

The Day The Poops-ic Died was an event that, despite its name, occurred over six days between 11 February 2011 until 16 February 2011. Many YouTube poops, despite being fair use due to the fact that they were parodies, were taken down by HiT Entertainment on copyright grounds. The event affected WTLNetwork, KeeperOfPorridge and perhaps many more.

Timeline
(All times are in GMT using 'dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss' format)

11/02/2011 09:00:34: Rabbish! is blocked by HiT Entertainment.

11/02/2011 09:02:06: Christmas with WTLNetwork is blocked by HiT Entertainment.

11/02/2011 09:04:58: Bill and Ben Were Horrified! is blocked by HiT Entertainment.

11/02/2011 09:07:01: Sir Topham Thing-a-Gummy's Agreement is blocked by HiT Entertainment.

11/02/2011 09:46:00: WTLNetwork announces the blocks on his Facebook account.

11/02/2011 09:47:04: Ongoing Feuds is blocked by HiT Entertainment.

11/02/2011 09:48:09: Trainsecks is blocked by HiT Entertainment.

11/02/2011 10:03:00: WTLNetwork announces that all of the YouTube poops have now been unblocked.

11/02/2011 10:43:13: A Tale of Guards and Johnsons is blocked by HiT Entertainment.

11/02/2011 10:45:00: A Tale of Guards and Johnsons is unblocked.

11/02/2011 21:00:00 (approx.): KeeperOfPorridge announces the blocks on his YouTube channel.

12/02/2011 15:28:00 (approx.): KeeperOfPorridge's videos are unblocked. 16/02/2011 09:59:01: Bill and Ben Were Horrified! is removed from YouTube by HiT Entertainment. 16/02/2011 09:59:23: Rabbish! is removed from YouTube by HiT Entertainment. 16/02/2011 10:00:17: Trainsecks is removed from YouTube by HiT Entertainment. 16/02/2011 10:01:03: Ongoing Feuds is removed from YouTube by HiT Entertainment. 16/02/2011 10:02:28: Christmas with WTLNetwork is removed from YouTube by HiT Entertainment. 16/02/2011 10:03:45: Sir Topham Thing-a-Gummy's Agreement is removed from YouTube by HiT Entertainment. 16/02/2011 10:03:45: The first official copyright strike is put on the WTLNetwork account. 08/03/2011 22:00:00 (approx.): Surprise! is released, along with The Best of WTLNetwork 3. 15/03/2011 00:32:00 (approx.): Both Surprise! and The Best of WTLNetwork 3 are removed from YouTube by HiT Entertainment without warning. It is decided that the WTLNetwork channel would be deleted and GenericWTLAlt take its place. 22/05/2011 13:16:00 (approx.): Pogo On This, HiT! is released, and as of 8 August 2011, is still online.

Reaction
Reaction was mostly negative from the YouTube poop community, with many people condemning the actions of HiT Entertainment. The later restoration of all the blocked content was later seen as something of a minor victory within the community. This victory was short-lived, however, as the disputes were rejected some days later, merely buying some extra time online for the videos.

Future of WTLNetwork
No official statement has been made by WTLNetwork in regards to the future of the consortium after this event. All non-Thomas-related poops remain on the account, and officially the channel only has one strike on it. The deleted videos have been put on WTLNetwork's Dailymotion account, as well as the YouTube channel 'genericwtlalt'.

Contingency plan
No contingency plan had been prepared for this event and as of 16 February 2011, the future of the videos removed remains questionable. The officially-designated alt for WTLNetwork is the GenericWTLAlt channel.

Tribute
A tribute concert, Poop Aid, has been organized and will take place on 19 February 2011, with Elton John to perform a new version of 'Candle in the Wind' to commemorate the loss of some of YouTube's greatest poops. The untitled band behind Butler Love are also scheduled to perform.

Return
On March 8, 2011, it was decided that WTLNetwork would continue to create new Thomas poops and that they would be uploaded on the usual channel. This also marked a radical shape-up in the method of which the poops are created. Previously, each Thomas poop focused on one episode from the Ringo Starr era of Thomas (with a few exceptions; see WTLNetwork - Off the Cutting Room Floor and It's A WTLNetwork Double Feature!). The new format focuses more on the Skarloey Railway episodes of series 4 with Michael Angelis as narrator and the focus on multiple episodes as opposed to just one.