BBTV (BroadbandTV Corp) is a 3rd Party whose business model is largely "Hey, you, media companies! You guys own all this stuff but don't have the time or interest to monetize your own content or to track down *others* using your intellectual property? Tell us what you own, and pay us, and we'll take care of it. Companies (Sony and Fremantle both are clients) pay them, and tell them what they'd specifically like done, and BBTV makes it happen.
In some cases that means monetizing the videos themselves - the video stays up, Sony gets a royalty check, and BBTV makes cash on the side. In other cases, that means the videos coming down entirely leaving the original IP holder free to pursue their own monetization and distribution. The only things, from my own experiences early this year, where the "take it down entirely" concept came into play was with full episodes of Wheel and Jeopardy. In virtually every other case, the rightsholders have left the videos up, and simply chosen to monetize it themselves.
And really, think about it. They get to sit back, let us as game show fans continue to share the content we're passionate about (within reason), and in exchange they get to serve ads and collect the royalty money. We get the content, they get the money. It's as close to an "everyone wins" scenario as you can get in this situation. No, you can't upload 1,342 episodes of Wheel of Fortune. But got an awesome clip, or maybe an old 80s episode, or you were a contestant? Go for it. Want to share episodes and clips from the harder-to-monetize back catalog (hello, Gong Show)? By all means.
Unless the notices came concurrent with a takedown (which, as I've said, has been the exception rather than the rule), your video stays live, you still get to share it. They just get the cash. If you upload their content, you've infringed on their copyrights. Heck, i used to do it extensively too. and knew damn well what I was doing. And when Sony/Fremantle brought in BBTV to actively use their IP? Enjoy your money, you guys. It's their content ("Fair Use" my ass" - anyone who claims that needs to be punched), if they want to make money off of our passion for their shows, more power to them.
