Unfairly Caught in Viacom’s Dragnet? Let EFF Know!
16
February
With its 100,000 DMCA takedown notices aimed at YouTube users, Viacom is getting a lot of videos mistakenly taken down from YouTube.
Among the 100,000 videos targeted for takedowns was a home movie shot in a BBQ joint, a film trailer by a documentarian, and a music video (previously here) about karaoke in Singapore. None of these contained anything owned by Viacom. Viacom has admitted to “no more than” 60 mistakes so far.
“If they are making these kinds of mistakes, who can tell how many fair uses of Viacom content they also targeted in their 100,000 takedowns?” asks EFF’s Fred von Lohmann. “Hundreds? Thousands?”
If Viacom made a clear mistake and your clip contains no content from Viacom-owned copyrighted works, sending a simple DMCA counter-notice to YouTube may be enough to do the job. But if you’re attempting to make a fair use of Viacom’s works, it may make more sense to go to court to assert your rights. More information about your options is available at the Fair Use Network.
If your video has been removed from YouTube based on a bogus Viacom takedown, EFF wants talk with you - they may be able to help you directly or help find another lawyer who can.
EFF has created a video to explain the situation:
1. MySpace Filtering User Videos, Trampling On Fair-Use Rights - Video Podcasting News | February 23rd, 2007 at 3:33 pm
[…] The issue of automated content filtering has proven to be controversial. Some video creators have had inexplicably banned videos, even though the video contains no infringing content. Robo-censors are also likely to ban content that makes fair use of copyrighted material. […]