If you’re trying to get a sneak peek of the lavish Olympic opening ceremonies, you’re not going to find them on YouTube.
Olympic organizers are scanning YouTube for footage of Wednesday’s rehearsal of the $40 million opening ceremonies and are removing it. Recordings are being deleted from the site due to copyright claims, according to British-based news agency Press Association.
YouTube users who find the pulled videos will be greeted with a message reading “This video contains content from the International Olympic Committee, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.”
The ceremony’s director, filmmaker Danny Boyle, encouraged rehearsal goers to “save the surprise” and not leak any details before Friday’s event. He even started a Twitter hashtag, #savethesurprise, to spread the message.
While the IOC is attempting a expansive sweep of YouTube, we did find a few hastily recorded videos of the opening ceremony rehearsals. User joshg119 uploaded more than hour of rehearsals but due to the poor quality of the videos, the surprise is still a little bit saved.
If you do run across footage like this, the IOC is asking people to email the links to monitoring@olympic.org. You might not win a medal but at least you made Boyle feel better about himself.
Photo via Hashgram