UPDATE, FEB. 26, 7:18 PM: ...Aaaaand it's gone. Looks like Saban has succeeded with that cease and desist. A message now appears on the YouTube page where the video once resided, “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by SCG Power Rangers LLC.”

Yesterday, a gritty, dark, fan-made Power Rangers tribute short film went viral. Today, Saban, the production company behind the official Power Rangers franchise, is trying to make it disappear. 

Joseph Kahn, the director of the POWER/RANGERS short, tweeted that "Saban is trying to shut POWER/RANGERS down. If you'd like to keep watching, tell them to stop harassing me," before sending out a link to a contact page at SabanBrands.com. 

The video was taken down from Vimeo yesterday, although it remains on YouTube even today. Vimeo has released an official statement to explain why they have removed the fan video from the site. In short, Saban is claming copyright infringement:  

You may be aware that an excellent fan video called POWER/RANGERS was posted to Vimeo recently. We loved it so much we gave it a Staff Pick.

However, we later had to remove it due to a claim of copyright infringement by the company that owns Power Rangers (SCG Power Rangers LLC, a division of Saban).

Lots of Vimeo viewers are understandably upset that they can no longer watch the video, but we've noticed that there's a lot of confusion about why the video was removed. Therefore, I want to clear a few things up:

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*** (1) This video was NOT removed because it is NSFW. ***

The video did include some mature content, but it was appropriately rated using our Content Ratings system. Therefore, it was not in violation of our guidelines around mature content.

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*** (2) This video was NOT removed because Vimeo determined that it constituted copyright infringement. ***

Like all major video platforms, Vimeo complies with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). You can see our full DMCA policy here:vimeo.com/dmca

In this case, the company that owns the Power Rangers copyright feels that POWER/RANGERS infringes on their intellectual property.

The video creator feels that the video is covered by Fair Use based on the fact that it is non-commercial and satirical.

We agree that an argument for fair use can be made, but the DMCA law does not give content hosts (like Vimeo) permission to disregard a takedown notice simply because of the presence of one or more fair use factors. This is a legal matter between the copyright holder and the video creator.

Kahn is now urging people via Twitter to download the film while they can, all the while pleading his case:

It's the classic battle between fan tribute and corporation, something that happens all too often especially in the video game industry (although Nintendo has recently changed their policy on fan projects). 

In the meantime, POWER/RANGERS remains on YouTube with over 6.8 million views. Watch below... while you can.