October 29, 2009

• Okay I've had it with youtube lately, or is it youtube has had it with me. I understand that youtube has been paranoid about being perceived as a copyrighted infringing infested video site, so now the moment that anybody dares say that a video's rights is owned by somebody else, youtube steps in and shuts the videos down. Sure they give you a chance to file a complaint against the complainer saying you have every right to post said video on youtube. But once you get three complaints against you (called "strikes"), they shut your youtube account down.

  Most recently, my U2 vids from the Rose Bowl concert was taken down. Now apparently even though there was no advance warning that no video taking was suppose to be taken that night at the Rose Bowl, my U2 vids got slapped with copyright infringement anyway. More specifically the "IFPI" was responsible for the compaint, with no real rhyme or reason why they did it. No warning, nothing, 1st strike. When it comes to concert videos, I'd rather the venue, the music artist, or the parent company themselves file the complaint, but some miscellaneous organization that I don't think was even involved with the Rose Bowl show? Well that's B.S. So that was "Strike 1" for me.

  There was one lingering factor that hasn't been resolved for months now that I was concerned about, that might get me another strike. It was after the San Diego Comic-Con, when Marvel Entertainment did a blanket copyright complaint against everybody who posted any footage from the Iron Man 2 panel. This was their way of making sure that nobody posted the sneak preview video they showed there. I personally only posted the Q&A portion without the sneak preview video, as that was allowed for us to do. The result was that I got nothing but complaints from other youtube users harassing me about why I did not put up that comic-con video clip of Iron Man 2. Yet that copyright complaint was still put on me, but no action was taken.... yet. In light of what happened with my U2 vids, I wanted to clear this up in the air, and filed the official youtube form stating that Marvel was mistaken to complain about my videos. So what happened? The video gets taken down, and I get my second strike. Really?! Is it just because I had the nerve to actually tell Marvel off for complaining about something they shouldn't have complained about in the first place? Clearly there is no real system by youtube to check and see if the copyright complaints are warranted, before action is taken placed.

  One more strike, and my youtube account is gone. I have a feeling it's going to happen any moment now, because there is one other Iron Man 2 panel video that I'm waiting for feedback on. I'm sure Marvel isn't going to bother checking and will immediately just say that it's copyright infringement, and youtube isn't going to bother to check and see if they are telling the truth, then WHAM, Strike Three, I'm out.

  Well you know what? To quote Michael Jackson "This Is It, when I say This Is It, I mean This Is It... This Is It..." I AM abandoning my current youtube account and will be looking at other video sharing sites. I'm probably just going to create a new personal youtube account without much content, just so I can have one that's not "tainted." Right now I'm just debating as to whether I should just manually delete my youtube account, or let youtube do it for me. I'm itching to do it myself... and that is 300+ videos, that will be all gone...

  • 9:14 pm
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