More and more I see the diginets like Antenna and MeTV skipping episodes. The latest one I've found is Antenna skipping a Father Knows Best episode tomorow (6-19, Cupid Knows Best). In this episode a character sings a snippet of a well-known Mexican song (I'd have to recheck my DVD to remember what it was).

In the past MeTV has skipped a Donna Reed episode where Lesley Gore sings It's My Party, and another one where a character sings part of a well-known French song. They edited out William Frawley singing Carolina in the Morning on My Three Sons. Also ditched Tina Cole singing a Don Grady-penned song. I'm sure there are many more instances of this with other shows.

Several years ago Antenna TV skipped many Bachelor Father episodes, most of which had someone singing or playing parts of, or whole well-known songs.

I've formed a theory on this. On another chat site I frequent there are reports of people making many copyright claims when old songs are posted on Youtube. My theory is the diginets are facing the same thing. (If so, someone needs to have the GUTS to take on these people--most of these songs are old enough to be in the public domain).

Doe anyone know if these (IMO fake) copyright claims are a reality, and that's why we're seeing TV episodes with old music either edited or skipped?

Antenna and MeTV probably don't want the expense of a legal fight even if they'e pretty sure they would win. I'm sure they figure its easier and cheaper to just skip or edit certain episodes.