Automated Circumventing of Fair Use Law on YouTube

[aardvarc]

Youtube has so egregiously flaunted laws and courts and rights its entire existence.

It made some individuals filthy rich doing so.

Do you have something against the filthy rich?

Persons who have been DAMAGED by YouTube's unlawful acts need to file a lawsuit and prove that YouTube acted outside the law, outside any binding contract to the contrary, etc. Arguing about it here benefits nothing and no one. The ONLY place your hot air makes ANY difference in inside a COURTROOM.

As a PRIVATE company, they get to act in being MORE restrictive than DMCA. Nothing prevents them from acting STRONGER, even to levels approaching paranoia in regard to copyright issues. They really DO have the ability to remove or deny content at will. Why? Because it's THEIR site, and THEY make the rules, and you can't force them to apply the rules as YOU see fit. Users either post within the guidelines THEY want to enforce, fair or not, or don't post on their site. It really IS that simple. Go make your OWN site and put up whatever you want. No one OWES you the freedom to post ANYTHING on THEIR site, copyright issue or not.

ought to rally public opinion against this horrible company.

The world is FILLED with newspapers, websites, and the sides of buses. Please feel free to contribute to the world economy by using all manner of public media to rally public opinion. But the reality is that most people don't CARE - they just want free entertainment, which YouTube gives them in SPADES. So good luck with that. While you and the other 10 people you'll convince to stop using/watching YouTube are off having a snit, the rest of us will continue to enjoy the plethora of offerings.

[Lehk]

youtube's automated systems are used to reduce their workload in processing DMCA takedown notices, there is nothing in the Fair Use doctrine that can be enforced against another, it is a defense you may use if sued for infringement when what you were using meets the criteria.

GOOG is not obligated to accept or host your content for you on their service, if they won't host it you can find another video host site or rent a server and put it on your own website

[flyingron]

Lehk is right. YouTube is free to establish their own rules as long as they do not conflict with the law. Refusing to host anything with copyrighted content is within their purview even if fair use would have been a defense at an infringement suit.

You have not been DAMAGED by YouTube nor are their acts illegal. You don't even have a contract with them. YOU are not YouTube's customer. Their advertisers and certain of the IP Holders they have licenses with (which drives their automated systems) are.