The Plot Thickens
Now on YouTube where there used to be Spiffs WoW video for Re: Your Brains, there is this message: “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Viacom International Inc.” I’m almost certain there’s no Viacom material in the video, so I’m starting to think this was some kind of mistake – maybe they tagged the wrong video for removal. YouTube hasn’t answered my email, but they have responded with some pretty non-responsive emails to Spiff and a couple other people who wrote in to complain. “The video(s) you posted were in violation of YouTube’s Terms of Use, as reported by users and verified by the YouTube Team.” Right, but…huh?
Aha! Update from Jeremy’s comment, which I’m putting here for better visibility. This could be the explanation:
Yeah, Viacom issued a massive takedown notice to YouTube, and a bunch of user-created content got caught in the crossfire. It seems like they just did a rough search on Viacom property names, and compiled the ENTIRE results into their takedown. So there was probably nothing in Spiff’s video that violated YouTube’s ToU, but some comment or tag that referenced a Viacom property to make it show up in the legal team’s search.
Comments
Jeremy says
Yeah, Viacom issued a massive takedown notice to YouTube, and a bunch of user-created content got caught in the crossfire. It seems like they just did a rough search on Viacom property names, and compiled the ENTIRE results into their takedown. So there was probably nothing in Spiff's video that violated YouTube's ToU, but some comment or tag that referenced a Viacom property to make it show up in the legal team's search.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/03/viacom_terrorizes_yo.html
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/02/05/viacom-becomes-dmca-bully/
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2007-02-02T155720Z_01_WEN3495_RTRUKOC_0_US-VIACOM-YOUTUBE.xml&WTmodLoc=TechNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-2
Anna says
The other thing is that the folks at World of Warcraft could complain about their images being used. Dunno who owns the company that created it.
BrianEnigma says
I believe that Viacom owns Blizzard, who makes WoW.
JoCo says
Actually, Vivendi owns Blizzard - I don't think there's a Viacom connection.
Flooey says
Just for reference, the only way that YouTube is going to restore the video is for Spiff to send a counter-notice to YouTube's designated agent (see http://www.youtube.com/t/dmca_policy). YouTube legally has to comply with takedown notices, and they only can put the things back up if their designated agent receives a counter-notice. Note also that after receiving a counter-notice, they have to wait at least 10 days before putting the video back online to give Viacom a chance to respond, so he'll need to be patient.
Kerrin says
I agree with JC, Viacom are nothing to do with Blizzard.
Spiff, send a counter notice, we want your video back on YouTube.
LB says
Blizzard's never minded user-created videos; anything that gets more people addic... er, playing their game is a good thing to them. I'd imagine. Not because I play. Or am addicted. Or anything. I honestly can't imagine what would have caught Viacom's attention; do they hold the copyright on zombies? Or brain eating? Silly, silly Viacom.
Darth Paradox says
I'd recommend a chat with the EFF. I wouldn't be surprised if they're putting together a lawsuit against Viacom for their DMCA spamming.
Spiff says
I just faxed YouTube a "counter-notification" letter, I emailed them the same thing, and I'm going to snail mail them the letter when I get home from work. I'm all fired up to fight The Man now, baby! ;)
Spiff says
These are the keywords I have for the "Brains" video. I wonder which of them triggered Viacom's legal attack dogs. None of them seem to have anything to do with Viacom. "Scourge" maybe?
jonathan coulton wow world of warcraft zombies spiffworld re: your brains undead spiff scourge
Andrew says
Sounds like Viacom wants all their videos down, but wants to do as little work as possible to individually find the videos. Kinda like bug-bombing a whole apartment complex to kill three roaches. Good luck Spiff!
Gary McGath says
One of the people they hit is a senior fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center (BIG mistake!), and he's looking into a class-action suit against Viacom.
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jim/2007/02/02/the-viacom-international-copyright-dmca-debacle-about-youtube-videos-should-we-counter-sue/
Randal C. says
Maybe Viacom's asserting copyright over all of Coulton's work based on the song about magic cobras on The Daily Show. Do they own that one, or did you retain copyright on it?
Randal C. says
Quick check--the Hodgman/Coulton promotional video for "Areas of My Expertise" has been removed due to a Viacom claim, as well.
Rachel S says
Of course! That's it!
Jonathan must have had cable television (or watched cable television) that was carried by Viacom. Obviously this is the inspiration for all of his music and therefore the sole property of Viacom.
Len says
How weird is that? Sorry to hear about the videos, Spiff. I'm with you fighting the good fight though!
JY says
Maybe Tom Cruise is somehow masterminding the plot?
BobCat says
Metacafe pays for views, so spiff's videos there are in violation of JoCo's Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons license, the Metacafe Producer Rewards TOS.
You guys could do a deathmatch to settle this, maybe. (;
Spiff says
Nice try, trying to get me and JC in a cage match, but I asked him before posting the videos to Metacafe if he was cool with it, and arranged an amicable split of the theoretical profits. The profits have remained frustratingly theoretical too, since you need to have a minimum of 20,000 views on a video and maintain a rating of 3 out of 5 to be eligible for payment. So far my highest viewed video (Re: Your Brains) only has about 450 views after three weeks. I doubt this is going to be much of a revenue stream for either of us. :(
Randal C. says
Upon retrospect, it may be that Spiff got lumped in with the other three or four videos of Re: Your Brains that use movie clips instead of WoW footage.
minimo says
Maybe Viacom is laying claim to the keyword "World." That simplifies things for them quite a bit.
ves says
Just like Darth Paradox said, EFF is putting together a lawsuit. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005109.php
Tony Fabris says
Internet companies cave to threats too easily.
I once made a T-shirt on Cafe Press that had the word "Caution" as part of its text. Cafe Press made me take it down because a company called the "Caution Clothing Company" made them do a blanket search for the name of their trademark and take down anything that contained it.
Think about that. Every T-shirt on Cafe Press containing the word "Caution" was taken down.
I think I'm gonna trademark the letter "E"...
Rose says
The nice folks at EFF are looking for people who were caught in the Viacom dragnet: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005109.php
They've posted a nifty little YouTube video of their own to get the message out; folks her might like to have a look. And JC -- you might even want to link it on your front page, especially if other of your videomaking fans got hosed.
Spiff says
I sent the EFF an email telling them what happened to me, if nothing else so they can add my name to the list of the victims. My video is back up again though (yay), so my grievance is sort of over with. Don't know if the EFF will want to contact me later for some sort of class action lawsuit or anything.
Average Jon says
from the latest Viacom press release: "We’re not unreasonable, I mean, no one’s gonna eat your eyes."
Victor Laurence says
Damn bastards took down Spiff's video again. Viacomm is a bunch of bastards and should rott in hell for ordering take down of content they have no rights to.