Four YouTube videos that had apparently been taken down earlier this week due to dubious copyright claims by the music publisher BMG Rights Management have once again become available to American audiences.
The videos showed President Obama singing the opening line of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." One of the videos, released by the Mitt Romney campaign, used the clip to portray President Obama as too friendly with political donors. The others were news coverage of his appearance at the Apollo Theater earlier this year.
"When we're notified that a particular video uploaded to our site infringes another's copyright, we remove the material in accordance with the law," a YouTube spokeswoman told Ars by email. "We have a counter notification process in place if a user believes a content owner has misidentified their video, and we reinstate content if a user prevails in that process. We also reinstate videos in cases where we are confident that the material is not infringing, or where there is abuse of our copyright tools."
But in a telephone interview with Ars, the spokeswoman declined to elaborate, at least on the record, about why the videos were taken down and what safeguards are in place to prevent abusive takedown requests in the future. Indeed, she refused to even provide an on-the-record explanation of whether the videos in question had been taken down via a standard DMCA takedown request or with YouTube's proprietary Content ID system.
YouTube's takedown system has a long history of abuse by major copyright holders. Last December, Universal Music Group removed a music video produced by Megaupload and featuring some of the recording industry's biggest stars. When challenged, UMG stated that its contracts with YouTube gave it the "right to block or remove" videos even if they didn't contain UMG's copyrighted material. YouTube eventually restored the video but refused to disclose the details of UMG's agreement with YouTube.
In March, a music licensing firm used the Content ID system to take down a video that contained no music in it at all. When the video's owner disputed the takedown, the dispute was reportedly rejected by the same firm that had sent the original takedown. That suggests that Content ID appeals are sent right back to the same company that submitted the takedown in the first place. Indeed, critics claim that YouTube gives ordinary users no recourse at all if a copyright holder persists in wrongfully blocking their videos. Our YouTube spokeswoman refused to comment on these allegations on the record.
When a presidential campaign's ad is blocked, that will cause enough of a fuss that YouTube's lawyers can take a look themselves. But YouTube's legal department isn't going to give that level of attention to every dispute. So ordinary users need better procedural safeguards.
A good solution would be to require rightsholders whose Content ID blocks are disputed to submit a standard DMCA takedown notice. That would allow uploaders to respond with a DMCA counter-notice and force rightsholders to actually go to court if they believe their copyrights are being infringed.
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