YouTube announced its plan to implement a new program on its site that supposedly will seek out videos that infringe on copyrights. This is supposed to go into effect at the beginning of September, 2007. It appears that YouTube might already be using such a filter program, as many user accounts have been suspended in recent days.

I am very skeptical about the program, having had one of my own videos wrongly removed when it was earmarked by a program that Viacom had used to seek copyright infringing videos. I don't trust such programs to be able to accurately discern actual violations from parodies and vlogs with merely discuss a song or TV program, but does not infringe on any copyrights in doing so.

A fairly well-known YouTuber, IRTheBorg, has had his account suspended. I do not know this for a fact, but my guess is that his suspension from YT is due to his karaoke videos. I feel that while such videos may technically infringe on copyrights, they are non-commercial and do more to promote the songs used, thus possibly making money for the company that owns the copyright when some people seek to purchase the song they heard performed on the video.

I don't see the harm that is supposedly done to the copyright holders by the videos such as the lip-synching videos, karaoke videos, home videos with popular music tracks, or any other non-commercial videos using copyright songs. No money is being made on these videos, so the copyright holder isn't really losing money. A TV show, or a movie is going to make money, or intends to do so, so I understand the copyright holder wanting royalties and requiring licenses in such matters.

MacBraveheart made some great videos discussing copyrights:



Also, check out this series of her videos (3 parts):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax_0CU0Brq0

What are your thoughts on this subject?

IRTheBorg suspended?

I agree with your viewpoint Matt. Tubers using music in their vids can only help promote songs and their artists. I've used music in many of my vids and on quite a few occassions I've had people ask me for the name of the artist. In fact, a few months ago I purchased most of Yanni's albums and only discovered him through a video uploaded by CircaRigel. He is a great artist and I enjoy his music!

The music in the YouTube vids don't earn the filmmaker money. It beggars belief what some of these music & TV/movie giants will go through to squash the consumer.

I hope that IRTheBorg is still around. He is a great member of our community and it would be sad to lose his talent.

I figure you already know this ... but his new nick is TheBorgLives

I removed alot of my vids on Youtube. I did so because I started think'n...if Youtube is letting people do what they are doing on there...what would stop someone from taking my pictures and telling everyone that they are theirs! I worked really hard to take my pictures the way I do and if someone were to take them and use them as their own would really piss me off!

I'm backing off of Youtube slowly.

Bay,

If they are your pictures, what you should do is put a watermark on them in the video, with your own copyright.

How do I go by doing that Matt?

MattHawes wrote:

Bay, If they are your pictures, what you should do is put a watermark on them in the video, with your own copyright.

_________________

I wouldn't trust such a program, either. Nothing is more accurate than a human being (or team of human beings) PERSONALLY REVIEWING videos. It's the same with vids marked as spam or violations of TOS, or users who have been flagged. A person needs to be checking these claims out and making sure they are legit. A bot does what it's programmed to do, and therefore can make mistakes. I have put background music in some of my videos and then placed that song's name and artist in the keywords and/or description. A bot could very easily mistake that for a copyright infringement (e.g. my putting up a music video). Loads of other people have done the same.

It's just going to lead to more headaches and angry users.

You know what You are all right, I am waiting for YT to knock my account down as I have some tracks on my videos... But I removed any mention of them from the description and tags...I am assuming that this is what they are using to pinpoint the offending videos..

If I am suspended, I have already got another channel cornered and I will be moving most of my vids to Live Video... Cant take no YT crap anymore!!!

Yeah I'm getting sick of Youtubes bull as well! I have my Live Video and I haven't had any problems as far as my vids on there. As far as the music....I use most of Alan Williams music! I use his music to help him promote his music.

Everytime I go to Youtube....LiveVideo looks better and better to me!

I wish YT would make more of an effort to understand the users' concerns and work on them. I know it's a huge site, and they have a lot on their hands just keeping it running and avoiding being sued for this and that, but they don't seem to be dealing with these issues very effectively. This copyright filter seems like something that was rushed, and it'll be too "cautious" and remove many more videos/users than necessary just to get the job done and they can move onto something else.

I might be totally wrong about this, but it's just what it seems.

-double post-

I think your so right Namby Pamby, it is totaly over cautiouse but the only way it can do this is by noting what is on the description and the tags, anything within the video is too much to look through cos it would need a person to watch all the vids posted