COPYRIGHT FAIL
Most of you have seen the channel fail blog on youtube. They used to upload very funny videos of well… People failing. I really liked their channel and watched most of their videos. As some of you know they had well over 100,000 subscribers and tens of millions of video views. I am not 100% sure, but I think they were also a youtube partner as well.
So I watched the failblog videos and could not figure out how they lasted so long and how they became a partner. So needless to say that I was not surprised at all when I heard the failblog channel got suspended recently.
Some people have no idea what constitutes copyright infringement and what constitutes fair use. The main reason for the post on this topic is because most people have no clue why failblog was suspended. The reality is I cant believe they lasted as long as they did.
That channel was basically taking videos from around the internet and uploading them to their own youtube channel. I am pretty sure that at least 95% of the videos on their channel were not their original content (if not 100% of them).
I know some of you are not going to like that I am saying this, but it is the truth. They were 100% guilty of copyright infringement, In my personal opinion. It simply was not their original videos and they were adding nothing to the content like commentary or something else to even have a chance at being in the fair use realm of this discussion.
Sure it sucks. They had great videos, but they did not get screwed like thunderf00t did. I will talk more about this later.
People just need to know the difference between copyright infringement and fair use.
So for all you failblog fans out there, I am a fan too. I have enjoyed watching their videos from time to time, but just because I like their idea for a channel and a website doesn’t change the fact that they violated someones copyright with their uploading of other peoples content onto their youtube channel.
Did I like their channel? yes.
Did I want to see them suspended? Of course not!
But the way things are going here on youtube you have to be very careful of what you put on your channel.
I figure that since failblog have made a name for sharing other peoples failure with the world in that spirit I had to discuss theirs here. The irony of it all. I hope that they continue to find a way to post videos and do it in a manner that is ok with all the people that actually own the content. It is a great idea for a youtube channel.
Keep in mind, I am one of the biggest proponent against censorship on the net and elsewhere, but this is one time that I had to point out the obvious. People need to learn how this subject of copyright vs fair use works and until they do channels will keep getting suspended. This confuses the issue between censorship and real copyright infringement.
Right now people think that just because they put a disclaimer in the videos information saying "I do not own this content it is the property of X company" this makes it ok. This is like closing your eyes when someone is shooting a 9mm at you thinking that will protect you from getting shot. This technique is worthless and will not protect you and your videos from being removed from youtube.
I hope this helps shed some light on this topic for you.
5 comments:
I agree! YouTube's way of handling copyright infringement claims is about as stable as nitroglycerin because there's just no proper understanding or consideration of the differences between what constitutes fair use and what constitutes actual copyright infringements, which in this case means that just anyone can remove YouTube videos that offend them by either actually being the owner or CEO of a corporation or just imposing one, which is just a boarding house for copyright fraud. In fact, YouTube is removing videos and banning accounts without warning and without thinking. That is completely unprofessional and inconsiderate! YouTube definitely needs to focus on banning cyberbullies, kicking out cyberterrorists, blocking false copyright claims, and watching reported videos to check for false claims and/or reports. I'm glad I don't have a YouTube account at all because if I get one right now, I'm only going to wind up with a waste of space that is likely going to get banned or have videos removed for no good reason whatsoever, especially without warning, so I'll just stay on Blogger and SourceForge.NET for now. YouTube must be terminated if these legal and moral issues aren't resolved!
Too many corporations like Viacom, 4Kids Entertainment, Colgate-Palmolive Company, FOX Corporation, and even Disney (not that Disney is a big jerk to deal with because what Disney fires copyright claims at is much more limited) need to learn to at least think twice before removing YouTube videos or suspending accounts and just mind their own business, and don't get me started on this "Spax3" nutjob because he's stalking YouTubers and removing videos that offend him, even though they fully comply with the fair use clause. YouTube is definitely becoming "FailTube", "NaziTube", "CorporateTube", and "PenisEnvyTube" because it's sometimes fixing parts of the site that aren't broken and not fixing the things that actually need fixing including cyberbully infestations and legal frauds. Therefore, YouTube needs to either truly fix itself or put itself completely out of business because it's gone way out of whack. Good luck with your YouTube activism!
I think you're right. They didn't know or didn't care about the issue of copyright. I too believe in fair use but you have to abide by what is really fair use. I write about Fair Use and YouTube at my blog (see the link.)
I was surprised when they got partner but not that they're suspended. Maybe if they made audio commentary in the vids they could get away with fair use.
Well said. There's an entire generation posting content all over the 'Net but without a clue (or in some cases, a care) about copyright laws. Maybe you should post a video on the topic (if you haven't already).
Tom: Yes, I know what fair use really is: parodies, criticisms, commentaries, tributes, and reviews (just don't use too much copyrighted content unless it's your own). Using only a little piece of music in any video isn't really a big issue when it comes to copyrights and fair use, and yet Warner Music Group makes a big deal out of it by muting videos containing content from Warner Music Group or apparently some videos that don't contain any of WMG's content, which is just plain wrong. I've seen this happen before.
Len: I agree. These people posting entire copyrighted videos and/or music from other companies are the real wrongdoers and it's those videos that YouTube should start removing because they're actual copyright infringements. In fact, I think it's time everyone learned that simply crediting others for their work still doesn't mean that the uploads qualify as fair use.
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