Yes, and lots of the content that disappeared was not infringing on Viacom. There is no way that Viacom had human beings actually look at the content they complained about. They just ran an automated search, gave the list to their lawyers, and threw the shit into the fan.
I am kind of surprised there is not a bigger outburst about this by the free culture community--of which I consider myself to be one. Talk about a chilling effect. I figure that a lot of the folks who had their videos taken down are about 13 years old, and are intimidated by the notices. Hell, I was kind of intimidated, and I'm anything but 13.
Viacom was completely irresponsible in using the DMCA complaint process to go after a list of videos that they had to know included many many many false accusations.
Viacom forced YouTube to take down 100,000 videos today, and to send out tens of thousands of DMCA Complaint notices.
Viacom made the list of "infringing videos." How did they make it? I bet they used spiders. The spiders were not as sophisticated as one might hope. I suspect that thousands of truly innocent videos are now blocked on YouTube.
This happened to me yesterday.
ahref=http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/02/ 100000-mistakes-by-viacom/rel=url2html-27817http:/ /blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/02/100000-mista kes-by-viacom/>
I received a DMCA Complaint for a genuine personal video that is certainly not infringing on Viacom. Here is the complaint.
ahref=http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/02/ viacom-owns-this-the-original-of-this-video-was-ta ken-down-from-youtube-at-viacoms-request/rel=url2h tml-27817http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/ 02/viacom-owns-this-the-original-of-this-video-was -taken-down-from-youtube-at-viacoms-request/>
Here is the video, now hosted at Google Video. Let me know what you think!
John Palfrey of the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School blogged about my situation.
ahref=http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2007/02 /02/viacoms-cease-and-desist-letters-for-a-home-vi deo/rel=url2html-27817http://blogs.law.harvard.edu /palfrey/2007/02/02/viacoms-cease-and-desist-lette rs-for-a-home-video/>
He received a very nice email from a man named Michael Fricklas of Viacom. Mr. Fricklas apologized for the mistake, and said that it had already been corrected. Hmmm. When I last checked, which was just a minute ago, the video was blocked.
How many Slashdot folks have the same problem? How many "mistakes" were made? Please let us know. Was I the only one???? Maybe!
PS There is an online center for sharing complaints if you think you are an innocent victim of Viacom. ahref=http://www.toptensources.com/topten/YouTube- and-Viacomrel=url2html-27817http://www.toptensourc es.com/topten/YouTube-and-Viacom>
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Yes, and lots of the content that disappeared was not infringing on Viacom. There is no way that Viacom had human beings actually look at the content they complained about. They just ran an automated search, gave the list to their lawyers, and threw the shit into the fan. I am kind of surprised there is not a bigger outburst about this by the free culture community--of which I consider myself to be one. Talk about a chilling effect. I figure that a lot of the folks who had their videos taken down are about 13 years old, and are intimidated by the notices. Hell, I was kind of intimidated, and I'm anything but 13. Viacom was completely irresponsible in using the DMCA complaint process to go after a list of videos that they had to know included many many many false accusations.
Viacom forced YouTube to take down 100,000 videos today, and to send out tens of thousands of DMCA Complaint notices. Viacom made the list of "infringing videos." How did they make it? I bet they used spiders. The spiders were not as sophisticated as one might hope. I suspect that thousands of truly innocent videos are now blocked on YouTube. This happened to me yesterday. ahref=http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/02/ 100000-mistakes-by-viacom/rel=url2html-27817http:/ /blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/02/100000-mista kes-by-viacom/>
I received a DMCA Complaint for a genuine personal video that is certainly not infringing on Viacom. Here is the complaint.
ahref=http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/02/ viacom-owns-this-the-original-of-this-video-was-ta ken-down-from-youtube-at-viacoms-request/rel=url2h tml-27817http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/ 02/viacom-owns-this-the-original-of-this-video-was -taken-down-from-youtube-at-viacoms-request/>
Here is the video, now hosted at Google Video. Let me know what you think!
John Palfrey of the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School blogged about my situation.
ahref=http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2007/02 /02/viacoms-cease-and-desist-letters-for-a-home-vi deo/rel=url2html-27817http://blogs.law.harvard.edu /palfrey/2007/02/02/viacoms-cease-and-desist-lette rs-for-a-home-video/>
He received a very nice email from a man named Michael Fricklas of Viacom. Mr. Fricklas apologized for the mistake, and said that it had already been corrected. Hmmm. When I last checked, which was just a minute ago, the video was blocked.
How many Slashdot folks have the same problem? How many "mistakes" were made? Please let us know. Was I the only one???? Maybe!
PS There is an online center for sharing complaints if you think you are an innocent victim of Viacom. ahref=http://www.toptensources.com/topten/YouTube- and-Viacomrel=url2html-27817http://www.toptensourc es.com/topten/YouTube-and-Viacom>