GooTube Was Better Without The Goo
We know how you guys wait anxiously for additions to Stereogum's YouTube channel, so thought we'd letcha know that WE'VE BEEN DELETED! In Google's overzealous efforts to police potential copyright infringement, the Goo's gone mad, doing sweep searches for tags and terms that may indicate protected content, at the behest of media entities like Viacom.
And with GooTube, it's two strikes, you're out. Our first came over a K-Fed clip, but that shouldn't be surprising 'cause everything's Federline's fault. The last blow came last night, though, when Viacom requested that Google delete the Decemberists "O Valencia!" Green Screen Vid because we wrote "MTVu" in the description. As in: "Fans are encouraged to add their own effects and send to MTVu." That's what we get for trying to HELP Viacom! And it seems excessive, given that the .mov was freely distributed in a contest that encouraged people to manipulate it. Of course, it's probably worse for people who had their non-Viacom related videos deleted wrongfully. Like if your name is Beavis, or Butt-head.
Didn't this YouTube/Viacom bloodbath take place a few weeks ago? Guess they're still doing searches for things and wrongfully removing content. Boing Boing had some salient thoughts and suggestions regarding Viacom's take-down notices and Google's rolling over:
This is shockingly bad behaviour on the part of both Viacom and Google, YouTube's owner. Viacom's indiscriminate spamigation is incredibly negligent and evil. They certainly know that a search for a term like "Redbones" will catch videos like Jim Moore's Sunday nite dinner at Redbones in Somerville, Mass (a 30 second clip of Moore and several friends "having dinner in a ribs place in Somerville"). The idea that they have members of the bar -- officers of the court! -- signing affidavits swearing that they have a good-faith belief that these clips infringe their copyrights is disgraceful ...Nice idea, but don't hold your breath for those counter-suits. Anybody else have their vids deleted? 2006 was the year of YOU; can't wait to hear whom they attribute this one to.But Google's lawyers should have known better, too. The DMCA says that if a web-hoster ignores a takedown request, it's liable for copyright damages if the material in question is found to be infringing. YouTube can't afford to just let any lunatic -- including the savage pricks at Viacom -- indiscriminately censor the content it hosts. That's not fair to its customers.
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And Google can take steps now to reduce that load: sue the living shit out of Viacom. We've got precedent -- the Diebold debacle -- for the idea that abusing the DMCA takedown process is illegal. Courts have been willing to punish this kind of excess by awarding fees and damages.
Okay, now we feel better. Visit us at videogum for the latest and greatest in legal video content.
Posted at 3:16 PM
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"2006 was the year of YOU; can't wait to hear whom they attribute this one to"
awesome.
i think...
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ugh fuck heads.
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Viacom is evil. Google is evil. Therefore, Stereogum is evil. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
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fourfour had the same thing happen last week as well. it's ridiculous - that's what it is. as much as i do love youtube, i'm starting to question how companies like viacom don't want the free publicity. fuck 'em, their loss.
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just use vimeo, nicer interface. Cool guys run it.
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I don't understand why any music exec. in their right minds would want any music videos pulled from YouTube. It may be one of the greatest free promotional tools to come along in years. It is the same as asking Mtv to not play your videos.
This reminds me of the heyday of Napster, when there would be a lot of fake files. If you had a crappy garage band, you could name the file of your MP3 "Metallica" and everyone would download it. Then when they started going after anyone who was sharing Metallica, they would go after you, even though it wasn't Metallica at all. You have to do a lot more than just go after tags and filenames, to prove a copyright violation.
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I'm in agreement with Kurt; the whole idea of pulling videos at all is idiotic and I would think hurtful to your company. And it's also irritating, like when you've finally tracked down a documentary you've been wanting to see (The Papal Chase), that isn't located anywhere else, and you finally find it only to discover Viacom pulled it only days before. Gah.
Sorry, I needed to vent.
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I wonder... Is Google/Youtube trying to work some deal with Viacom and this overreaction is part of the deal?
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Viacom wants more money from Google and Youtube - it's all about greed and fuck the fans. They can take the videos down if they like - 10 more will just take its place.
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I blame the already rich assholes who sold Youtube to Google in the first place...
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you know, I wondered what this was going to come to; Youtube pulled a video of my friend falling down stairs because it supposedly infringed Viacom's copyright... because Viacom totally owns the concept of falling down stairs.
Sadly, I think they backed themselves into a corner that is going to bask them in a very unflattering light, because they pulled all the videos, due to Viacom infringement. If they had just pulled them, they probably would have gotten away with, uh, oh yeah, EVERYTHING, because their user agreements (which, I know, no one ever reads) allows them to pull any videos they want. Unless they only wanted Youtube for its server abilities (not that they really need it, I'm sure); in which case, they've done the right thing, because they're going to drive away a lot of people over this, + they'll have all the server space they want.
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