Slashdot Mirror
EFF Lawyer Calls YouTube ContentID Worse Than DMCA
Richard Koman writes "Warner Music Group is apparently blocking everything YouTube ContentID comes up with as potential infringement. We knew that, but this piece by Jason Perlow shows that they're also spewing out DMCA takedown notices for some pretty clearly fair-use stuff. In my interview with EFF's Fred von Lohmann he talks about how, as bad as the DMCA process is — and it's pretty firmly against fair-use — YouTube's process gives remixers and digital creators even fewer options to assert their right to speak through the fair use of copyright material. While EFF is negotiating with Google and the studios, he suggests that users boycott YouTube if they won't stand up for fair use."
Is there an alternative that's as easy to use and allows embedding of the videos on other sites?
Learn to play an instrument, write something, film your own original movie. Copy/paste is not art.
You-Tube is losing money, so use their services even more of you don't like them
They give us content at a loss, but make up for it in volume.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Learn to play an instrument, write something
And get sued for accidental plagiarism. George Harrison got sued and lost (Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music). Michael Bolton got sued and lost (Three Boys Music v. Michael Bolton).
... to the tune of 470M per annum according to Credit Suisse analyst Spencer Wang, maybe we should pile on instead of boycotting them. :)
"I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
IANAL, but it seems obvious to me that misrepresenting something that is clearly fair use as something that isn't means that the notification was NOT accurate. Therefore, the law firm representing the copyright holder (and possibly the copyright holder themselves) should have charges of perjury filed against them. I haven't seen the EFF file any countersuits like this yet, though...
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
Earlier this year when YouTube started silencing user posted videos in response to WB, someone posted this link which did a search for silenced YouTube videos.
Right now there are over 22,000 search results, the highest I've seen it was 300,000+ search results, meaning overall YouTube appear to have silenced over well over 1/3 million videos (and probably then removed most of them).
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
Earlier today I had an urge to listen to Devo's Jocko Homo from their self-produced movie. Found two copies, only to have the sound removed because a record label was claiming copywrite on the music. Hello, the music is within a movie which is copywrited by Devo Productions, how can you claim to control what is within their own movie?!?
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
Write up your experience with filing your counter-claim. Add an easy to understand explanation of what DMCA is and why it's bad. The key is easy to understand and follow.
Post it to a blog or website. Report back to slashdot and we can distribute it among young YouTubers.
Education + youthful resentment of authority + Gen Y/Gen Z entitlement - Music videos == digital revolt.
The EFF always slips into high melodrama mode when they need to raise funds. Slashdot has served as one of their principal PR platforms perennially. It's pathetic and smarmy, but it's nothing new.
unfortunately, you're at the mercy of whatever low-paid operator they have looking at those.
Other posters are correct though, the DMCA is too broad by miles, but Google couldn't run YouTube without the compliance laws. As long as Google continues to take down THEY stay out of court.
I think Google might be planning a coup soon though. Remember things like ContentID are designed for studios to police there own works because Google wasn't doing "enough". Google's making it dead easy to identify copyrighted works, but on the other hand they're setting the content publishers up to take a big fall. They say 37% of the DMCA notices are inappropriate or incorrect... the CONTENT OWNER is expected to know fair use rules too. Once Google can demonstrate a clear pattern that publishers aren't respecting fair uses they can take that mountain of data to court with them... with all those companies names on it and put some feet to the fire to get the laws changed.
There is nothing 'sad' about it. Many movements are pushed by a minority of people who understand the issue. For the same reason that YouTube can choose not to stand up for fair use, people who understand how important it is can criticize them for not doing it. They can also make as big of a stink as they can to try to bring awareness to the issue. Heck, they can even work to get the average Joe to get riled up and pissed at YouTube to make fighting for fair use the thing that best protects their profit margins. Writing them and e-mailing them to gripe isn't the answer. The answer is to get lots of people to write and gripe and boycott. This is accomplished through lots of public complaining.