Was “Here Comes Another Bubble” psychic or what?

The current tough economic situation and the deflation of the Web 2.0 bubble were certainly perfectly predicted by the huge hit online video, which was sung to the tune of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by the San Francisco-based Richter Scales.

It was a little less than a year ago that “Bubble” became a viral phenom, attracting even more attention for being taken off of YouTube due to its use of a photo in the video it did not have the rights to.

In any case, it is most definitely worth another look with meltdown eyes:

And, the first to report on the controversial story of it then being taken down by YouTube (GOOG), in a fight the group had with a local photographer, Lane Hartwell, who objected to the use of a photo she took that was in the video without her permission or payment to her for its use.

The Hartwell photo was removed, and the copyright controversy eventually died down. And the video still remains very funny and even more realistic than ever, given the series of crazy Web 2.0 funding valuations of late.

And now “Bubble”–which opens with a BoomTown interview with investor Peter Thiel, who denies such a thing as a bubble in tech–has won a Webby Award for Best Viral Video.

Well, congrats to the creators of the video, which mocks the current Silicon Valley culture with affection, set to the tune of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”:

Except JibJab actually asked for and got permission from Joel for the use of the song for its parody. (Props for that, I say!)

Techwise, the review of 2007 includes, the Wii, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, SuperPokes and his Digital Holiness Steve Jobs of Apple and the instrument of his glory, the iPhone.

In any case, we still love “Bubble,” but here is the JibJab’s offering, which was shown on the still-writerless “Tonight Show” last night on its first night back after the writers’ strike shut it down. It is the 11th time that the Venice, Calif.-based online video-maker has appeared on the show.

Despite copyright woes, it is getting kudos: The Economist has selected “Here Comes Another Bubble” by the the San Francisco-based Richter Scales as the best musical number on YouTube in 2007.

So, here is the video one last time:

Today, Daryl Lang of PDNPulse, a blog from Photo District News, reported that it contacted more photographers whose pictures were used in the popular Web 2.0-mocking video by the San Francisco-based singing group, the Richter Scales.

Four of them responded that they also did not like the use of their work one bit, some objecting to the credit given, others to the non-payment and still others to not being asked for permission to use their photos.

Some objected to all three issues, all of which have to do with “fair use” under copyright law.

“I’m totally against the unauthorized use of my image,” said Ramona Rosales, whose picture of TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington was used in the video and who said she was going to ask that the photo be removed, to PDNPulse. “I was never asked permission nor have I received any compensation for its use; furthermore I don’t feel it is justified simply because they gave me credit.”

As BoomTown reported last night here, the Richter Scales posted a new version of its “Bubble” video after photographer Lane Hartwell had the first one taken down from YouTube, because they used a picture she took of Valleywag’s Owen Thomas without her permission or payment.

In Version 1.1, the singing group added a full list of credits, which were also on the video. They also replaced the Thomas picture with one of me.

(At its start, the video also uses a quote from BoomTown’s video interview with investor Peter Thiel, which you can watch in its entirety here, which BoomTown has since approved of.)

After the second one went up last night, Hartwell said she was still sending the Richter Scales an invoice for the first version of their video, which uses Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” as the tune in its parody and has been a viral hit on the Web.

I emailed Rosales for further comment, and will update this post when I hear from her.

About the new comments from other photographers quoted by PDNPulse, the Richter Scales’ Tom Shields said: “We have not heard from any other copyright owners regarding our video. If we do, we will attempt to reach resolution with them, hopefully in a civil, private conversation and not in the blogosphere. We are not trying to make a point, or looking for a fight, we’re just a bunch of hobbyists who like to entertain people.”

Ironically, Arrington–in a series of not-so-entertaining exchanges with another commenter, blogger Shelley Powers, in the Globe and Mail’s Mathew Ingram’s blog–felt Hartwell was wrong.

So, until this video also gets the copyright hook, here’s the new version of “Bubble”:

[Updated with Richter Scales comment.]

They have a full list of credits here and also on the video, and have a blog post on the problems related to the music video here.

Here’s the new version of “Bubble”:

The popular and viral video was removed from YouTube after photographer Lane Hartwell filed a DMCA take-down request with YouTube over copyright issues related to a photograph she took of Valleywag’s Owen Thomas that was used in the first video without her permission or credit.

Now, the Thomas picture has been replaced by one of, um, me. (At its start, the video also uses a quote from BoomTown’s interview with investor Peter Thiel, which you can watch in its entirety here.)

Hartwell has responded to the new video here, saying she was sending the Richter Scales an invoice for the first version of their video (apparently, it got a million plays on YouTube).

She said she would use the money to pay for her lawyer and donate the rest to Kids With Cameras, a nonprofit organization that teaches the art of photography to marginalized children in communities around the world. Hartwell said this was the offer “I proposed to the Richter Scales that they chose to disregard.”

Hartwell also noted, in part: “In the end, the band opted not to work with me toward a fair resolution of the issue. I have to say that I’m very disappointed with the members of the band I negotiated with in good faith. I question whether they would have acted differently if they’d been contacted by Billy Joel’s management or the stock photo agency Getty Images.”

The video is indeed using Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” as the tune in its parody.

In this case, that’s too bad, since the video-sharing service just took down the very popular music video parody called “Here Comes Another Bubble,” by San Francisco’s Richter Scales, which we first posted here and which has taken off like wildfire around the Web.

The video opens, in fact, with a BoomTown video of an interview with Facebook investor Peter Thiel, who talks about there not being a bubble (of course there is, Pete!).

But we did not mind the use of a snippet of it without permission, since it seemed like fair use in a parody.

So what’s the problem? Well, someone sent YouTube a take-down request and the company honored it without contacting the Richter Scales first.

Here’s the video:

By way of background, the hysterical video is sung to the tune of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and perfectly nails the Web 2.0 mania better than pretty much everyone in Silicon Valley.