A foreshadowing of life under SOPA?

Alareth

Philosopher
Alareth
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Earlier this week the file locker site Mega upload released a promotional music video featuring stars such as Will.i.am and others showing support for the site which the RIAA claims is a haven for scum and villany.

Shortly afterwards the video was pulled from Youtube at the request of Universal Music Group.

Megaupload immediately file a lawsuit over false use of the DMCA because UMG had no rights to anything in the video which was completely original. The judge gave UMG 24 hours to explain it's actions.

UMG's response today is chilling to say the least. They claim that Megaupload has no legal recourse because the video wasn't removed under the DMCA, but instead under a private agreement between UMG and Google that allows them to take down any video they want regardless of who owns it. The speculation is that it is a clause(s) in the contract Google signed to gain the music videos under the VEVO service.

Link: http://arst.ch/rvs
 
Pulvinar said:
Why chilling? Perhaps you thought YouTube was a public domain site...
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Perhaps you think and unrelated third party having control over your content without a valid legal claim doesn't bother you?

I fully understand that Youtube is a private enterprise, but to have a private entity outside of Youtube with the secret power to remove your original work whenever they feel like it is in fact a problem.
 
Alareth said:
Perhaps you think and unrelated third party having control over your content without a valid legal claim doesn't bother you?
Click to expand...
YouTube has control over ALL content there, no matter what, just as MegaUpload has control over ALL of its content. Is that fair? Of course.

I fully understand that Youtube is a private enterprise, but to have a private entity outside of Youtube with the secret power to remove your original work whenever they feel like it is in fact a problem.
Click to expand...

Well, yes, having enemies is a problem. It's not like they didn't know they had them.
 
This happened to one of my companies videos, that we uploaded to our Partnership channel (that means WE pay money to Google to have an upgraded YouTube account to do all types of advertising, and allows to create advertisements at a fraction of a cost).

I uploaded a video, it was COMPLETE edited by us, done with music that WE created for the title (and heard no where else) and referenced no other party's IP.

2 hours after the upload, I see a copyright Claim against the video, for "music that was used in the video" and that said music should be replaced or the video must be removed.


I'm like WTF? WE created the song, since it's a unique SONG to the game we are about to publish. So no one, but us owns the copyright.


I forget the company, but a google search on the company's name had revealed that it was one of those copyright claim trolls who place claims on users accounts on YouTube that "Represent a bunch of companies, for which they were authorized to do so".

Yeah, whatever. A sternly worded email from our legal department to YouTube got the claim lifted.
 
That's an interesting dynamic -- make a claim and get it taken down, make a counter-claim, and the first claimant is required to prove ownership, which in some cases they can't do.

There should be some kind of abuse penalty where people who chronically and sloppily make claims that turn out to not be true eventually lose the right to make claims. It is their job, and always has been, to prove the violations.


Worse, there was a case where someone made a video critical of some Muslim thing or other, and some group made a claim. Now, to make a counter-claim, you have to state your name and maybe even address, which the guy didn't want to do because then they'd know where he lived, which was the point of making the copyright claim.
 
They actually got a news story about the incident taken down as well:

http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/14/...ch-news-today-episode-yanked-from-youtube-for


I suspect this incident may backfire, and give Congress pause... when even the existing laws are abused so arrogantly.

I don't defend piracy. But the free wheeling power in this bill can (and will) be used for censorship. All that is needed is a claim of copyright infringement.
 
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The false flagging weapon is a tool used by muslims, creationists, and just plain douchebags. It isn't always to do with legal actions either. Put up an ad for guitar lessons on craigslist and watch how fast it gets flagged.

The point with the DMCA (but which hasn't happened yet) is that we are supposed to see HARSH penalties for those filing false claims, but so far we havent seen much. Of course there was the time thunderf00t made venomfangx apologize to the whole internet
 
Pulvinar said:
Why chilling? Perhaps you thought YouTube was a public domain site...
Click to expand...

Actually I'd say that chilling would be a very good word for it. Here we have a large group telling YouTube, and apparently other video hosting sites, to remove content that is not infringing copyright, but rather is being critical of the group. In other words, what you have is a private group who are willing to use any means at their disposal to censor the net of what they determine to be material negatively disposed to them. How is this not Chilling to you?

How far would you be willing to allow this behaviour to go? To the point where they could demand that JREF's ISP dropped them because there are threads that are deemed negative to them? They are already having News stories about the incident taken down, what would you allow them to have removed next?
 
PhantomWolf said:
Actually I'd say that chilling would be a very good word for it. Here we have a large group telling YouTube, and apparently other video hosting sites, to remove content that is not infringing copyright, but rather is being critical of the group. In other words, what you have is a private group who are willing to use any means at their disposal to censor the net of what they determine to be material negatively disposed to them. How is this not Chilling to you?
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And importantly, they are using the claim that it is copyright infringement to do so, weakening the hell out of the already horribly weak protection we should have for IP
 
pipelineaudio said:
And importantly, they are using the claim that it is copyright infringement to do so, weakening the hell out of the already horribly weak protection we should have for IP
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I think just the opposite our IP is too protected. As a software engineer, software patents are killing the industry. Most guys I know have ideas for new businesses, but know that if they try they'll just get sued into oblivion by patent trolls or big companies that they may compete with. And copyright is meant to give the public the right to something after a reasonable time for the author to receive compensation, but now it lasts so long that most books with good ideas are forgotten and out of print long before any public benefit. Trademark has been allowing big companies to steal things from people for years based on name similarities and just plain greed. The system is balanced in favor of corporations and stifles creativity. Too many things should be in the public now that aren't because of these outdated systems of protectionism. Congress needs to wake up and change the laws for more modern interpretations in the face of a fast paced constantly changing world. Or we're just going to fall behind in innovation and the US itself will become obsolete.
 
I think the point a few people seem to missing is that in this circumstance, UMG didn't actually make a copyright claim. They used a backdoor method that allows them to remove ANY content they don't like regardless of copyright or ownership.

They didn't want people on Youtube to see Megaupload's video so they unilaterally removed it.
 
pipelineaudio said:
The false flagging weapon is a tool used by muslims, creationists, and just plain douchebags. It isn't always to do with legal actions either. Put up an ad for guitar lessons on craigslist and watch how fast it gets flagged.
Click to expand...
Why would it get flagged?
 
Alareth said:
Earlier this week the file locker site Mega upload released a promotional music video featuring stars such as Will.i.am and others showing support for the site which the RIAA claims is a haven for scum and villany.

Shortly afterwards the video was pulled from Youtube at the request of Universal Music Group.

Megaupload immediately file a lawsuit over false use of the DMCA because UMG had no rights to anything in the video which was completely original. The judge gave UMG 24 hours to explain it's actions.

UMG's response today is chilling to say the least. They claim that Megaupload has no legal recourse because the video wasn't removed under the DMCA, but instead under a private agreement between UMG and Google that allows them to take down any video they want regardless of who owns it. The speculation is that it is a clause(s) in the contract Google signed to gain the music videos under the VEVO service.

Link: http://arst.ch/rvs
Click to expand...
O too bad, did the person making the video have legal right to use the images and music under original work? Even if they do, why should Youtube have to host it? You can't force McDonalds to have ads for Burger King.

Why should they be able to force Youtube to act against its wishes, and what does this have to do with SOPA?

I support SOPA, I do not support the extension of copyright beyond 20 years, but people do not have the right to freely distribute other people's work.
 
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Alareth said:
Perhaps you think and unrelated third party having control over your content without a valid legal claim doesn't bother you?

I fully understand that Youtube is a private enterprise, but to have a private entity outside of Youtube with the secret power to remove your original work whenever they feel like it is in fact a problem.
Click to expand...

Oh too bad Youtube is a private service, people are free to use a multitude of other sites.

This has squatty whatty to do with SOPA.
 
jayh said:
They actually got a news story about the incident taken down as well:

http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/14/...ch-news-today-episode-yanked-from-youtube-for


I suspect this incident may backfire, and give Congress pause... when even the existing laws are abused so arrogantly.

I don't defend piracy. But the free wheeling power in this bill can (and will) be used for censorship. All that is needed is a claim of copyright infringement.
Click to expand...

Yup and if they can't prove it, then what?
"Host Tom Merritt and crew played two clips of the "Mega Song" video while discussing the issue and MegaUpload's pending lawsuit Monday afternoon, which was too much for Universal: it filed a copyright dispute and had the episode pulled from YouTube by Monday night."
 
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