John McCain’s ‘Obama Love’ fund-raising video was a hit on the web this week, so it’s a surprise to find that it’s been zapped from the campaign’s YouTube channel.

According to Unruly Media’s viral video tracking service, the McCain campaign’s ‘Obama Love’ video was the hottest presidential candidate viral video on the web this week.

Nevertheless, the video has been removed from YouTube. The fund-raising videos also appear to have also been removed from the campaign’s web site.

Unruly Media reports that the video has been viewed almost 260,000 times since its release Tuesday.

That makes it one of the McCain campaign’s most successful viral videos to date.

It’s not clear why the video was deleted, but there’s a good chance that the campaign’s use of Frankie Valli’s hit tune Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You had something to do with it. Licensing such hits is expensive, and the tune is frequently used in television commercials.

There were two versions of the video, and both appear to have been taken down. Viewers voting for their preferences for the two videos generally preferred the one accompanied by the Valli tune.

The McCain campaign did not return a call or an e-mail for an explanation.

If the video were taken down due to a copyright violation, it wouldn’t be the first time that the campaign has run into a wall with its online fund-raising mash-ups.

In October, Fox News went after McCain for using a clip from a debate appearance on its network in a web ad called "Tied Up."

The ad used a clip of McCain criticizing Hillary Clinton for an earmark.

Fox’s lawyers argued at the time that the clip’s use didn’t constitute fair-use because the campaign was using it to raise money — therefore it was a commercial use of the footage.

Update: The Warner Music Group asserted its copyright claim against YouTube, which is the reason for the take-down. McCain’s campaign has re-posted the video, sans Warner’s intellectual property. It’s ironic that a United States senator, who has been part of a body that has so repudiated the idea of fair-use, is feeling the repeated stings resulting from its own legislative history. (To be fair though, McCain’s been on the side of individuals in many a legislative fight.)

Here’s the original (1:)

Here’s the new version (2:)

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