It took three hours before the first video clip of the Led Zeppelin O2 Arena gig appeared on the phenomena that is Youtube and around 24 hours before the site started removing the then rapidly increasing amount that was appearing, displaying their well-known red takedown boxes, sighting infringement on copyright owners Warner Music Group.

That is not unusual. Except in this case none of the copyright holders who might have requested this action actually had done so. Google, the owners of YouTube, said Warner Music Group was responsible, which would make sense as it owns the rights to the band’s songs. But Warner had not sent the takedown requests, nor it seemed had the band, nor any of the other miscellaneous parties with a stake in the concerts, such as the venue’s owner, O2 or the promoter.

Finally a New York company confessed. GrayZone monitors copyright violations on behalf of media companies, but on this occasion it had been a little over zealous.

“Grayzone regrets that it erroneously issued takedown notices to YouTube regarding footage of Led Zeppelin’s December 10th concert,” the company said in a statement. “We acted without authorisation from the band or Warner Music Group.”

Grayzone’s Dorothy Sherman said that the company had removed around 300 clips before it realised its mistake. 

So for the time being, the clips remain, for now.