This blog is still and maybee always will be in alpha. There is no strict editorial direction at this time, but it's likely to be rantings and ravings about technology, design, art, culture and especially all things new media.
The MPAA has a well-earned reputation for, shall we say, "molding" their facts. But with its latest lawsuit against Hotfile, the group has apparently gone too far for Google's tastes. The search giant has just filed an Amicus brief objecting to the MPAA's "distortion" of the DMCA.
An Amicus brief is a court document filed by a third party in a case—neither the plaintiff or defendant—that volunteers information that may be relevant to the proceedings and would not have been discovered otherwise. In this case, Google's brief provided a legal opinion that the MPAA is full of shit in regards to the Safe Harbor provisions.
"Google is particularly concerned by some of the arguments offered by the plaintiffs, which distort the meaning of the statute and, if accepted, would unduly narrow the important protections those provisions give online service providers," the company wrote.
Google pointed to its own case against Viacom a few years back in which the search company successfully used the provisions as a defense. While the case has already been in progress for a over a year, the MPAA's sudden request for a summary judgement has apparently spurred Google to action. Looks like the MPAA's ploy to quietly cajole its lawsuit to fruition backfired. [Scribd, Amicus Curiae Wiki via Electronista - Image: Pakhnyushcha / Shutterstock]
Wait. Hotfile still exists!? I guess i'm still a geek who loves the latest dirt on the copyright dust-up. MPAA bad... google... err... while I guess they're on the right side on this one.
This is a story we're starting to see time and time again. Youtube deleting user accounts completely without any due cause being given to the owner of the account. Traditional media companies abusing the DMCA to silence critics.
As covered on newteevee Pubdef.net "an online destination for video reports from St. Louis and the state of Missouri published by Anotonio D. French, a newspaper reporter who was frustrated with local news coverage" had his entire youtube account deleted on accusations that one of his videos violated Channel 5 St. Louis' copyright.
The video (embeded below) was critical of Channel 5's unsubstantiated claims that an local alderman took bribes in a realestate swindle. Was it fair use or copyright infringement? View it below and be your own judge.
Pubdef has re-hosted the video on his own site. Of course the majority of the other 200+ videos are gone. You can read his original post over on pubdef.net.
What disturbs me most about this is it's hard to feel sorry for the guy and his readers when he apparently has gone right back to hosting his videos on youtube under the the new userneame PubDefTV. Dude! Move to a reputeable host like blip.tv!
Ever day I become more appalled by youtube's complete disregard for it's users.
Sooner or later people are going to realize youtube is a complete tyrant that has no respect for their freedom of speach or right to fair use.
Youtube is one tyrant putting other tyrants, namely big media companies, concerns over individuals right to free speach and fair use. I don't understand how there hasn't been a mass exodus from youtube. Enough already. Vote with your feet people and leave. There are far better video hosting sites. Two of my personal favorites are blip.tv and vimeo.com. Most importantly though, host your own vlog.
I'm not calling for a boycott here. I just wonder why there hasn't been more backlash. I hear more and more cases about DMCA take down abuse on youtube every day and I wonder why people don't do the obvious thing and simply leave youtube.
Case in point, I just stumbled on a nice little post by Washington DC vlogger Kenya Allmond about the deletion of one of her videos by youtube. Apparently it was just 3 minutes of her friend singing along to a few lines of a prince song as they drove down the road. She has reposted it without sound to see if youtube delete's it again.
Yesterday I received a lovely notice from YouTube indicating that one of my videos was removed due to copyright infringement. The notice also stated that repeat incidents of copyright infringement would result in deletion of my account and all the videos uploaded to said account.
What was the video? Did I record something from TV and post it? Did I rip a DVD and post it? It was none of these. It is a video of the boyfriend lipsyncing to Prince’s “Kiss”.
Great eh? How absurd is it that a person can't even share a clip of their friend singing a song while driving down the street? Why do people still use youtube again?
This may seem trivial, but it's not. It's a basic free speach issue. Our right to be secure in our ability to communicate with and share our personal moments with whomever we choose. Video is the new frontier of free speach. Just as you can quotes from a book we need mechanisms and established methods for quoting or referencing in video.
Let's go over some key points:
youtube doesn't even bother to review DMCA take down merits
youtube often simply deletes videos and even whole accounts without pre-warning
youtube not only deletes the video but all the comments, discussion and related material that go with it... effectively "disappearing" it (sort of like a corrupt regime might "disappear" political dissidents) so no record exists of potential wrong doing, not even how many videos youtube has "disappeared".
once deleted accounts and videos often can't be resserected even though clearly the reason for doing so is often flimsy and unstated
youtube automates the process for big companies to take down literally anything they feel like regardless of merit
youtube doesn't even bother to tell you who requested a take down, why, nor offer you any due process
often videos are deleted without review simply because the title mentions an artist, show or movie
often videos are taken down because someone sings, quotes lyrics from, or even plays a song
youtube is extremely quick to respond to take downs without review but very slow to respond to DMCA counter notices
All this adds up to one thing. Youtube really doesn't respect its users. They've put big media's interests far above citizens rights to free speach and fair use. I encourage people to go find someone who does respect their rights. Like Kenya use a better video host like blip.tv or vimeo.com, and host your blog on blogger.com or wordrpress.net or even your own domain.
Meanwhile on a respectable video host vimeo.com, a site that respects it's users freedom of speach and fair use the hot meme for over a year has been "lip dubbing" with 1114 vidoes as of this writing. Put a song on the ipod and lip sync the lyrics into the camera as you listen along. Clearly on youtube the majority of these lip dubbing videos if not all would be removed.
Yesterday I received a lovely notice from YouTube indicating that one of my videos was removed due to copyright infringement. The notice also stated that repeat incidents of copyright infringement would result in deletion of my account and all the videos uploaded to said account.