Wesnoth trailer banned from Youtube by Viacom

catwhowalksbyhimself · February 21st, 2007, 10:54 pm

Huh. The wiki lists two other versions of the trailer on Youtube, and both are still up.

nightcrawler · Post by **nightcrawler** » February 22nd, 2007, 12:03 am

YouTube wrote: Dear (me),

Your counter-notification has been forwarded to the party that sent the takedown notification.

Sincerely,

Jacob
The YouTube Team

I understand there are alternative video sites, and actually the trailer should really be posted on as many sites as possible. In addition, this video could have simply been re-posted on YouTube - there's nothing wrong with it.

However, I am extremely annoyed that this happened, and these people should be forced to relent. The process should work, and we'll see if it does.

The EFF has also been notified, since they asked people to notify them about this issue... but they haven't written back. However, they might be more interested in pursuing actual "fair use" cases (which this wasn't).

Post by **Dave** » February 22nd, 2007, 12:29 am

nightcrawler wrote:However, they might be more interested in pursuing actual "fair use" cases (which this wasn't).

Well perhaps....though on the other hand the injustice of a company issuing a takedown notice based on their content that is being used (perhaps arguably) fairly vs them issuing a takedown notice based on content that they have no claim to whatsoever....well, the second is more of an injustice imo.

David

nightcrawler · Post by **nightcrawler** » February 22nd, 2007, 3:15 am

YouTube wrote: Dear (x),

In response to your DMCA counter-notification, Viacom International has retracted its copyright claim with respect to the following videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIt69vznegs

This content has been restored and your account will not be penalized. For technical reasons, it may take a day for the videos to be available again.

Sincerely,

Jacob
The YouTube Team

The video isn't loading yet, but the page loads now. I know the world hasn't been without the trailer since it has been re-posted by several people, and it's not like this is a huge victory for freedom everywhere... but it's nice to come out on top every so often. Or more accurately, it's nice that this didn't produce the opposite outcome and signal that our system even deeper down the crapper than we think it is.

Post by **Viliam** » February 22nd, 2007, 7:34 pm

nightcrawler wrote:The EFF has also been notified, since they asked people to notify them about this issue... but they haven't written back.

They sent an answer to me. Maybe many Wesnoth users wrote to them, so they decided not to answer to everyone. On our part, it would have been probably better to select one speaker to talk to EFF.

Also maybe they received info about hundreds of videos. Before they take some action, they need to make some basic checking about their legal status. (It would be stupid to bring Viacom to court, just to see that 99% of the complaints were really illegal.) Any legal action probably takes some time to plan.

I am also impatient, and I would like to see some action now... before people calm down and forget about this.

Tux2B · Post by **Tux2B** » February 22nd, 2007, 8:58 pm

I can't say I'm really surprised, but still... this is shocking.
I mean, they don't have ANY rights about this. And it's not the only video that has been deleted... I don't even understand why they do this. It's bad for their image, after all...

shevegen · Post by **shevegen** » February 22nd, 2007, 9:46 pm

I am sorry to say it but if youtube decides to act like idiot,
ignore youtube.

And I say this frankly opposed to everyone that appeals to get youtube to revoke THEIR mistake. Some guys here act as if they cant live without
youtube - how many of you came to Wesnoth because of Youtube?

Tux2B · Post by **Tux2B** » February 23rd, 2007, 10:20 am

It's not as if Youtube really had any choice... They weren't going to check everything they were told, most of all since it is true that a lot of content on Youtube is copyright protected.

Post by **radoz** » February 23rd, 2007, 1:29 pm

shevegen wrote:I am sorry to say it but if youtube decides to act like idiot,
ignore youtube.

And I say this frankly opposed to everyone that appeals to get youtube to revoke THEIR mistake. Some guys here act as if they cant live without
youtube - how many of you came to Wesnoth because of Youtube?

It's Viacom, not youtube, that caused the trouble. Viacom falsely claimed copyright violations, and because their power is _much_ too great youtube simply gave in and killed thousands of files.

Post by **MSchmahl** » February 23rd, 2007, 1:55 pm

zookeeper wrote:Does the DMCA somehow force them to remove non-infringing content without warning upon arbitrary requests? I'm guessing it doesn't, [...]

Actually, I think it does. It comes down to, if YouTube (or anyone else) receives a notice, and fails to take down the allegedly infringing content, they are liable for damages. If they do take down the content, they are not liable for damages to anyone, even if the notice was incorrect or even fraudulent.

I am not a lawyer.

Post by **Viliam** » February 25th, 2007, 6:25 pm

radoz wrote:Viacom falsely claimed copyright violations, and because their power is _much_ too great youtube simply gave in and killed thousands of files.

MSchmahl wrote:It comes down to, if YouTube (or anyone else) receives a notice, and fails to take down the allegedly infringing content, they are liable for damages.

This is what happened: Viacom send a list of 100.000 videos and claimed that they belong to them.

Now imagine yourself being YouTube. You have no chance to verify the claim for all 100.000 videos in reasonable time. You can just ignore them all, or remove them all. If you ignore them all, you broke the law, because some of the videos really belonged to Viacom; probably majority of them. It's logical that they decided, for their own safety, to remove all videos. What would you do in their place?

So, Viacom is the one to blame. They said that our video belonged to them, and they took legal action to remove it from internet. Dirty thieves!

Post by **irrevenant** » February 25th, 2007, 8:39 pm

Viliam wrote:So, Viacom is the one to blame. They said that our video belonged to them, and they took legal action to remove it from internet. Dirty thieves!

Hmm, is that an infringement of our copyright?

Tux2B · Post by **Tux2B** » February 25th, 2007, 9:54 pm

I believe it is, but I'm not sure. Was there any explicit copyright mention on youtube, concerning this video? Maybe that because there wasn't it can't be considered as a copyright infringement. But I'm no lawyer, so I don't really know for sure.

Duffchong · Post by **Duffchong** » February 25th, 2007, 10:34 pm

Tux2B wrote:I believe it is, but I'm not sure. Was there any explicit copyright mention on youtube, concerning this video? Maybe that because there wasn't it can't be considered as a copyright infringement. But I'm no lawyer, so I don't really know for sure.

The notice the appeared 'instead' of the Wesnoth video was: This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Viacom International Inc.

Post by **La_vie_en_Wose** » February 26th, 2007, 12:49 pm

I think we won't be banned from there