So some of you may or may not know that in addition to playing video games, geeking out over comic books and movies, screaming for pro wrestlers, rocking out to metal music and pwning n00bs, I also have a deep and abiding love for figure skating (yeah yeah I know. Shut up.). To that end, I have a second YouTube account dedicated to videos of my favorite skater:

http://www.youtube.com/user/KurtsGirl618

Now, I'm sure you've heard of the conflict YT has had with WMG and UMG, where they're going around muting or deleting any videos that basically even reference something they think might be under their copyright. Well, since music is a huge part of figure skating, they absolutely *decimated* my channel, deleting the sound from many of my most popular (not to mention personal favorite) videos. Back when it started happening a few months ago I tried unsuccessfully to fight it. I had pretty much given up, which really made me sad since I wanted to get most of my skating video collection up both for myself and for other fans. Of course, if all that was going to happen was the music gets killed, there was no point in putting forth the effort. I felt stuck, and pretty much gave up.

Last night I figured I should let my subscribers know no new videos would be forthcoming, when our very own Usa (who friended me under that YT account before I created my current main account), dropped me a line and let me know I could probably fight the issue under Fair Use. I hadn't realized that was possible. So I did some googling, and found the following magic words that I plugged into the "fair use" section of "resolve copyright" under ever single muted video I had:

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

Bingo. It was amazing. Within I'd say 15-20 minutes, my entire video collection had sound again. I know WMG and UMG have a right to protect themselves and the music they own, but really, the whole YouTube thing has made them into total and complete douchebags, and they can kiss my ass. So happy all the work I put into making and uploading those videos hasn't gone to waste. And, if you or anyone you know has had issues with this, please be sure to pass along the phraseology up there; it works like a charm. I've heard it doesn't work 100% of the time (depends on the specific use and video I'm sure) but it worked completely for me. Spread the word, if you have the need.

And Usa, I owe you a cold beverage of your choice.

*siiiiiiigh*...........

Well, I thought it was won. It wasn't. Apparently the folks who claimed copyright "reviewed" my disputes, and decided all my videos were, in fact, infringement. How, I don't fucking know, but there seems to be no recourse after this, as a bunch of my vids have been actively taken down. God DAMMIT these people fucking SUCK.

I think I'm going to go illegally download and seed some CDs with these songs on them, just to fuck them over. I hate these people.

Oh yeah, I very much know I'm in the right. Its assinine, really. I just don't have any recourse at this point that doesn't involve way to much time, effort and money. As much as I love that YouTube channel and the way it helps fans connect with performances they might otherwise never get to see, I'm not really willing to sink that kind of effort into it.

What irritates me is that Google IS a huge company with a crack team of lawyers, who COULD protect their users from bullshit like this. Part of me understands why they don't--they actually loose money on YouTube, from what I understand--but still. Fuck this, really. Gr.

Well yeah. I mean I don't have further recourse through YT's system online. Other options aren't viable.

And no, its absolutely the song that's doing it, trust me. Its all music groups. Plus the fact that they mute a lot of them w/o taking them down makes that clear. If it were NBC/ABC/show broadcaster making these claims, I honestly would not have even filled out the "wrongful flagging" form. I would gladly have respected that, since it really is their property. ABC and NBC are smart enough not to do this, though. WMG and UMG are just taking advantage of the fact that people like me don't have the time or energy to fight back.

GAH THEY'VE SOMEHOW CONNECTED BOTH MY YT ACCOUNTS! THEY'RE THREATENING TO DELETE BOTH OF THEM!

Shoot me someone

^ Well I would, if that would help, but it won't. Just deleting the account won't erase the bullshit strikes against the other. The strikes are put against ALL accounts linked to the master email you use--of course I didn't know that when I set these up.

So basically even if all the skating videos magically disappeared, my other poor, innocent account would still be one strike away from anahaliation. Bullshit system.

jackfrost wrote:

Why not create some BS accounts on Yahoo? I have at least a dozen on there. Create a dozen Yahoo accounts and a dozen Youtube accounts to match. When you get slapped down you need to stand up and shout. Fight the powers that be . We'll subscribe.

Yeah, its too late at this point though. Once your email is linked to an account, its linked forever, even if you "change" the email your notifications get sent to.

Both my accounts are nuked now anyway, along with all the videos on them. That's a lot of work they just killed. You can find the whole retarded story and what you can do to help in my two threads in the OOP forum...sigh.

Slayer1 wrote:

I'm a little lost here. I have a couple videos that have copyrighted music but it still has sound to it. I have not recieved any threating notifications or anything so am I dodging a bullet. The only time I had to change it was because they thought the ride of the Valkeryies was from the Movie Apocolypse Now. That was only a minor change because I had essentially the same song reinserted. My question is why is some being hit and others aren't?

Seriously? They muted a public domain classical piece because it had been used in a movie? Holy shit are these guys asses.

Are you dodging a bullet? Not sure. It seems quite arbitrary who they do and don't go after. I had quite a lot of views and a decent subscriber base (YouTubers love figure skating!) so maybe that had something to do with it. I think it also has to do with whose song it is--as we've seen, WMG/UMG and Sony Music seem pretty set on ruthlessly decimate anything that even has a similar letter combination to one of their songs. (Seriously, people's videos--videos without music at all--have been taken down because they titled it something similar to a copyrighted song.) So I'm not sure. Technically almost everything on YouTube is copyrighted, but most places are smart enough to know that th publicity from things like fan videos and LPs and the like is well worth looking the other way. (I've bought at least three games because of watching someone LP them, for example.) The other thing that got their attention with me is that I started trying to fight the copyright notices they sent me, rather than just letting them mute my videos. That's what got my account suspended--once you fight the initial notice, if they find you still in violation, they give you a "strike." Three strikes and your account is suspended. Now, I'm in the process of fighting THAT, and I actually think I might be able to get my accounts back. But it's a huge pain in the ass.

Aqua, when you figure that out, you call me okay? I so, SO want in on whatever hack you plan.