Comments on: YouTube institutes automated removal of unlicensed music from posted video

By: Gordon Firemark

Gordon Firemark — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:41:17 +0000

Of course, if a self-hosted video becomes wildly popular, the bandwidth bill can be staggering.

By: YouTube censors

YouTube censors — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:16:43 +0000

I’ve stopped posting to you tube entirely. The site has now lost it’s appeal. I know encode my movies into flash and directly embed them into my blog posts.

Goodbye YouTube, it was fun while it lasted. I now consider you, the boob tube of 2009.

By: YouTube ~ automated removal of unlicensed music « MediaSlap blog

YouTube ~ automated removal of unlicensed music « MediaSlap blog — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:28:06 +0000

[...] people who post won’t behave – they need to watch out for the falling hammer! Read “YouTube institutes automated removal of unlicensed music from posted video” by Gordon [...]

By: The YouTube plot thickens… | Law Offices of Gordon P. Firemark - Entertainment Lawyers

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:02:19 +0000

[...] follow up to my post on Wednesday regarding YouTube’s automated audio-muting of user-generated videos containing [...]

By: Film Directing Tips » Blog Archive » YouTube institutes automated removal of unlicensed music from posted video.

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:01:06 +0000

[...] visit Gordon’s blog and leave a comment on what you think of this YouTube policy and how it will effect your films and [...]

By: goldenrail

goldenrail — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:07:11 +0000

This article explains that it’s the users who choose to mute the audio: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10142694-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Apparently, YouTube has had the mute-rather-than-takedown option for awhile but it’s only being noticed now because of Warner Music’s pulling out of its YouTube arrangement. The video creators have the option to mute the video rather than have it take down. I don’t know if they were asked to choose as soon as the negotiations with Warner fell apart or if YouTube waited ’til it received Take Down notices.

I fail to see how muting is anymore of a censorship issue than wholesale taking down of the video, regardless of how much of the audio is potentially infringing. (Take downs almost never consider fair use.)

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:02:20 +0000

Interesting that the whole audio track is removed. Sounds like a quick and easy solution for YouTube. If the unlicensed music is only used in part of the audio track and the whole track is removed, that is censoring any original content by the author. It is definitely not fostering creativity, which goes against the spirit of copyright. I do not agree with or condone infringement, but I do agree with authoring new material. I think only the infringing portions should be removed. However, that would make a lot more work for the YouTube folks.

By the way Gordon, I put a link to your podcast on my website.