youtube, free speach and the tyrany of private public spaces, v2

"Youtube. This account is suspended."

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.

It's an issue I've written about before.

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!

youtube, free speach and the tyrany of private public spaces

Let me just start at the end,

F*ck youtube.

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”.

Excerpt from: Kenya Allmond: In My Own Words � YouTube Video Removed for Copyright Infringement

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.



This is Nagi. from Knock Knock and Vimeo.

Jet Blue - videoblogging for apologists

My good friend Jan over at FauxPress blogged the following about the Jet Blue's CEO posting a public apology on Youtube regarding their holding passengers hostage on a plane for some nine hours.

Thanks to Steve Bryant at NewTeeVee for pointing out another interesting executive video.

To Steve I say that Jet Blue's David Neeleman gets lots and lots of points for not reading from a script. So many folks these days are reading from scripts whose performances have left me cold. Hillary Clinton and Mr. Marriott come to mind. Not to worry, there's a learning curve to mastering authenticity, but you need a dedicated director on board to help you find and learn it.

[Note: Senator Clinton's YouTube announcement video linked from VoteHillary.org has been taken down for TOS violation. Oops.]

Furthermore, I don't need to hear, "I'm sorry." No-sir-ee. The only really meaningful response to a big-time screwup is action. Free flights, hotels, lots of free stuff for that kinda snafu. Let's see if Neeleman's words translate into motion, then re-evaluate.

Checking the JetBlue website, I found this text apology. Also found their new Bill of Rights, though the amounts of compensation do not seem high enough.

I just wanted to add two things.

1. Welcome to the new face of the corporate to customer relations.
   
   Video blogging has natural advantages over regular blogging and PR channels like the press releases or VNRs (video news releases).
   
   It's particularly enticing as a tool for corporate apologists because it's much more direct then a VNR and much more personable (therefore more empathetic) then a written apology. I personally believe this may be the start of a change in the way companies interact with their customers.


2. Welcome to the digital dark ages.
   
   Consider this emphasis. As Jan points out Senator Hillary Clinton's youtube announcement video for votehillary.org has been taken down for violating Youtube's terms of service.
   
   Normally this means a violation of copyright (the video came from CNN News), but regardless of why youtube removed it I just have one thing to say....
   
   It doesn't matter wether it was deliberate or accidental youtube's removal of such a video is censorship plain and simple.
   
   I would even argue that its being arbitrary or accidental is even worse then it's being a deliberate act. At least if it was deliberate it would inform us of youtube's policy on censorship thereby informing our choice as to whether youtube is an appropriate choice for us as individuals.
   
   On the other hand if youtube is going to randomly and arbitrarily remove videos then it ceases to have any value as a platform for free speech at all and should be considered merely a platform for trash we don't care about.... which... is generally how I currently regard it.
   
   Please, if you're going to post stuff to youtube post a public backup somewhere.
   
   This is what we all deserve for depending on a third party. Expect to see a lot more important reference material disappear from youtube in the future. The future of youtube is the proverbial 404. If you you really want something to stick around (if it's important to you at all) I suggest using a tool like vixy.net to grab it off youtube and save a copy on your own server.
   
   For example, here's the Jet Blue video in MP4: JetBlue-our-promise-to-you.mp4
   
   I've included it for the sake of archiving it, because without it this post doesn't make much sense.
   
   Not only is it on my server in case it disappears from youtube in six months time, but as an MP4 it's also podcast compatible and download able.