The Electronic Frontier Foundation is coming to the rescue of YouTube users. They feel YouTube and Warner Brothers have crossed the line when it comes to content issues and disagreements when, for example, they remove a young girl's video of her singing "Winter Wonderland" - which is copyrighted content.
Today, the EFF made a blog post claiming that copyright holders have become overzealous in their use of YouTube's ContentID feature, which allows them to flag for deletion many videos that the EFF feels actually constitute Fair Use. This blog post reaches out to individuals who have lost their content and would like to take legal action.
Last month, utilizing YouTube's new automated copyright detection program, Warner Brothers was able to detect that 15 year old Julie Weybret had posted a video of herself playing the piano while singing Winter Wonderland. Because of the content, her video was pulled.
The EFF is irate regarding the situation. In regards to YouTube's Copyright ID service the EFF stated:
"These systems are still primitive and unable to distinguish a transformative remix from copyright infringement. So unless they leave lots of breathing room for remixed content, these filters end up sideswiping lots of fair uses. And that's exactly what has happened these past few weeks. And while today it's Warner Music, as more copyright owners start using the Content ID tool, it'll only get worse. Soon it may be off limits to remix anything with snippets of our shared mass media culture - music, TV, movies, jingles, commercials. That would be a sad irony - copyright being used to stifle an exciting new wellspring of creativity, rather than encourage it."
The EFF feels strongly that the YouTube Content ID tool doesn't separate copyright infringements from fair use. Even though YouTube gives users the option to dispute removal, individuals are scared to stand up for their rights without legal help - and legal help can be quite expensive. This is going to hurt the future of amateur video on YouTube.
This is where the EFF steps in, it plans to aid individuals who have had their videos removed from YouTube in serving a counter notice. The EFF wants to offer legal protection to as many individuals as possible. And with consumer support, the EFF might just be able to save YouTube and amateur content creators. Source; http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/41323/118/
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