Update: Merton is back — be sure to check out our exclusive interview with him.

Merton, a.k.a. the Chatroulette Improv Piano Player, has had his viral video yanked off of YouTube "due to terms of use violation."

Merton became the big Internet sensation when he logged onto Chatroulette with his glasses, hooded sweater, and trusty keyboard and created songs for random strangers on-the-fly. The result was millions of views, tons of Merton love, and even an "Ode to Merton" performed live by Ben Folds, which has also gone viral.

By their very nature, Merton's songs were very unlikely to have violated copyrights from the big music agencies; his songs were created as soon as the next Chatrouletter appeared.

Our understanding is that the video didn't violate any copyrights; instead, there were likely privacy issued involved, as most of the people in the video didn't know that they were becoming part of a viral video.