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Kevin B. Lee, who wrote for us about the best music videos of 2008 and whose video essays I’ve linked to of several times in the past, just informed me that his YouTube account has been “permanently disabled.” Kevin’s video essays wed critical commentary or conversation to clips from copyright films in a “teaching” context, and most of them were created as part of his project to “view every film on the list of 1000 greatest films of all time, as compiled by They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?.” Kevin says he received a copyright warning earlier today in regards to his video essay on …And God Created Woman. It was the first time YouTube had ever slapped his wrist over one of the video essays, although they had contacted him about two unaltered clips in the past, one from The Sorrow and Pity and one from Dames. Three strikes, and Kevin’s out — YouTube has removed all 70 of his videos, including 40 original video essays. If you’ve embedded one of these in your own blog, that embed will now be unplayable.
Kevin has his own personal archive and can potentially re-upload the clips; he says he’ll investigate other online video sharing options. But YouTube is still the biggest game in town, and Kevin says he’ll miss it. “I’ll miss not only the unparalleled audience reach, but the cool stats that YouTube had to offer (like learning that viewers would rewind repeatedly to watch Bardot’s bare ass in my video essay for …And God Created Woman),” he noted in an email. “But that’s nothing compared to having the right to share my work in the first place.”
Kevin is one of a number of people producing film criticism via online video who have had trouble with YouTube of late. These videos represent the first real advance in film criticism as an art form in, at least, decades; other video sharing platforms may remain more friendly to copyright borrowers for awhile, but ultimately this practice may have to either move underground or disappear.
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We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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This is such a shame! I agree that Kevin Lee’s work - most recently on the Eastwood video podcasts - has been inspiring and educational; and definitely a most welcome refreshing “advance in film criticism as an art form”, as you write.
Here in Norway this would equal to every book reviewer’s RIGHT TO QUOTE. With an evident respect for the films he commented upon, Lee was by all means within his “right” - but I guess the corporate filters being applied to YouTube is not particularly human in their choices. All recognized material must go.
Clips from my neighbouring country Sweden’s “Let the right one in” was provided to my Norwegian film magazine employer as promotional videos, and they encourage us to upload them to YouTube. Two months later, takedown notices was sent from YouTube. We don’t even know how to respond.
I guess a website/independent critic has to create their own Flash video player in the future to avoid automatic takedowns. But then, there’s always the fear of being “hunted down”.
A sad thing to see this fine new form of criticism being pushed by the powers-that-be in the wrong direction.
Fascinating and sad. Kevin’s videos really do add an additional dimension to the process of film analysis and deserve a proper platform. If studios don’t mind crappily assembled fan tributes, why should anyone complain about these detailed appreciations for great art that, with their neatly assembled excerpts, do a magnificent job encouraging viewers to go check out the whole thing? YouTube should reconsider.
I feel his pain. I was removed from YouTube for some boo-shee as well. I had a few previews on there for titles carried by Something Weird Video. Apparently my versions were bad because they had boobies in them. Yet, those same videos are still available to see today. Make sense? Nope.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mLijx8Bd6E
This is completely maddening. Kevin represented something vital, something necessary to the art of film criticism. And the fact that obsolete copyright laws can effectively lead to the end of discourse like his gives me no pleasure. He is one of the most important film critics in the world, and it’s a farce that YouTube cannot see past the end of its nose and recognize that.
His video essays for the Critics’ Roundtable on Clint Eastwood (which I moderated and Karina participated in) made all involved look better.
His gifts are bottomless, and I pray that he finds a solution to this mess…better yet, I pray that YouTube comes to their senses.
It’s truly a shame. However, there are plenty of other video sharing sites (Vimeo and Dailymotion, just to name a couple) that actually offer some features that YouTune does not. Plus, I believe that they aren’t as extensively scrutinized for copyright violations as YouTube is…
Wow. Talk about kicking the wheels off the cart, and then shooting the horse. Kevin’s critical essays probably netted no small amount of income for the copyright holders by turning people on to films they might not have otherwise bothered with.
I have a lot of my own found footage films on youtube, in whic I use a lot of copywritten works. After I received a copyright notice, I sent a letter of dispute explaining why my work falls under the “fair use” category. Youtube gives you the option to do this. Soon after, youtube put the video backup on their site.
I helps reference cases of legal precedence in which fair use was defended and emphasize that if the work is transformational, and a work of criticism/commentary it’s not a legal violation, no copy written work is immune from criticism/parody. Still, I think youtube forwards these letters to the copyright owners and it’s ultimately up to their discretion..
It’s YouTube’s random attempts at abiding by copyright laws that makes their overall ‘control process’ laughable. Kevin’s insightful little essays ‘pinching’ a minute here and a minute there (mostly from films most people aren’t interested in anyway) get the boot, yet you can log on and watch Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” (along with many other well-known films) in its entirety! And, as Glenn Kenny explained, Kevin’s short essays are in effect promoting the films he is covering? So what the…?
What rot.
My response is here.
Fight the good fight, Kevin. We’ve got your back.
Karina, thanks for aggressively covering this. I think it’s going to turn out to be important.
This is really sad. I always looked forward to getting Kevin Lee’s work in the “Subscription” folder in my YouTube account. I would save them until the moment was right to sit back after a long day. Now what am I going to do with that empty space of time? Watch Lisa Nova? I hope Kevin kept a list of his subscribers so he can contact us at his new video sharing site.
Many thanks to Karina and the commenters for their reports and thoughts. To the e-barricades!
Like Matt, I have also posted on this Shooting Down YouTube: Bring Back Kevin Lee’s Videos!
Hi Katrina,
I understand Fox has demanded the removal from YouTube of Siskel & Ebert programs containing authorized review clips from its movies, such as “A Christmas Tale”–this in the film’s 25th anniversary year, in a review that helped launch the film and could only help its DVD sales now.
Roger
Really sorry to hear this, as I agree with you that Kevin’s work is a worthwhile form of film criticism/commentary.
[...] want a one-stop resource to understanding the rights and limits of fair use. - Karina Longworth on Spout broke the news. I blushed when I read her assessment that “These videos represent the first [...]
i lost my youtube acct due to having faved vids on accts shut down such as kevins / im soon losing my annoying gmail and seeking other sources for videos and email
their behaviour will cost them the virtual billions they are worth
in the end, the consumer drives such value and the value of google/YT corp is nothing but downhill, sadly so
enjoyed it while i could / time to move on it seems
kevin: keep us informed on where to find you next!
[...] issue in the online content world. Major fair use issues at YouTube in the last few months include permanently disabling the account of a prolific video film critic and using its ContentID system to remove Warner content after a dispute between the two companies. [...]
please remove my video! someone posted it and it is affecting my work! please take it off……..i dont have an account on you tube…..i dont really want to have one….. i just need the video removed now or as soon possibly! thanks………..ps… im wearing a pick top in the video just wanna make sure you find it..it’s called mouse bite!
Ive just had my account disabled! Over 100 videos, some are very personal!
Thats it with my youTube relationship!
Tc
This has hit me also. Today one of my videos was found inappropriate that has been there for 1 1/2. Its a cartoon of a woman giving birth but then i do a search and there is some sicko posting films of women in real pain giving birth. Not the medical kind either and my video was pretty much more educational. I’ve been hit with the music copyright and have had them muted or deleted.
Why didn’t they offer a grandfather clause or something for videos? I mean that would have been much less damaging to them. they could have made those types of negotiations in their suit with Warner / Viacom.
I went thru some videos today for a test. I went to some sites that had advertisements associated to them that i could say the videos there violated my rights. NOPE! They made me go further to explain and when I went to an ordinary site and flagged it it didn’t ask me to go further.
So they have filtered the endorsement videos of course because they cash in on those. But if you don’t have the viewership what good will it be to have commercials / promotions associated to peoples channel? I’m moving on myself and I think allot of people will too. YouTube is going to turn out to be another boring site.
I have backed up all my videos thank God! Yes its going to be a bit tuff looking for videos now. I think they shot themselves in the foot with this one. They should have worked a deal out and for the big boy company their just another greedy giant. I understand the musicians don’t want their material stolen. Well why don’t they just shut down youtube all together then?
How many kids films r on there? Clips from so many films and they know they r there and music videos and copies of news broadcast.
The majority of films on youtube are all that and more. Whats left are a bunch of kids talking back and forth to themselves with web cams and repeats of news broadcast we can see on tv and its old news anyways. I’m done with youtube and moving on for my own enjoyment. They could of handled this differently and it shows what a unprofessional operation they are for not negotiating.
The fallout has only just begun because its starting to hit people like Kevin now and the academic world. Tisk Tisk Youtube its only a matter of time when your a part of history too.
This is how its going down…YOUTUBE IS GOING TO BECOME ONE BIG ADD FARM… SEE YA!!!!
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Film financing in the NY Times … YouTube removing 1,000 clips a month from NBC alone
- The Journal reports on some legal “saber-rattling” the major media conglomerates, including News Corp., Viacom, and NBC Universal are doing with regard to YouTube. They’re threatening to seek damages of $150,000 for every copyrighted video posted, apparently in an attempt to pressure the site into offering them more favorable revenue-sharing deals. But most legal experts think the suits won’t have much merit because of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.
From the piece:
YouTube has been negotiating with content owners throughout the year as it tries to reach licensing pacts with them and head off any copyright lawsuits. So far, YouTube has struck deals with TVc ompanies NBC Universal, CBS Corp. and with most of the major music companies, including Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group and Sony Corp.’s and Bertelsmann AG’s joint venture. YouTube is building a system that would help automate identification of videos containing copyright material on its site, and allow the content owners to get a portion of any related ad revenue.
http://cinematech.blogspot.com/2006/10/film-financing-in-ny-times-youtube.html
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This has been going on for some time and they still allowed us to place our work on their site to gain the viewership. I feel it was a form of deception to have allowed us to upload these to begin with. They should have thrown in a detection feature along time ago so we could not upload in the first place. They worked this one smooth didn’t they.
How can I get my hands on the James Cagney Makes Funny Noises Clip with additional information as to the name of each movie that is presented?
The DMCA has a fair use clause. He can contest his banning with youtube.
This has happened to many people.
I had posted over one hundred videos of Siskel & Ebert on Youtube from October 2007 to December 2008. Most of them were their reviews from the early 80s which had been erased by the studio. One day, Youtube informed me they had to remove the S&E review of Johnny Dangerously, because Fox didn’t like it. This movie came out around 1985, and they are worried about it now?! I informed Roger on his blog about me taking down all my posts of his old shows, and his response was BS. Roger even linked to one of my post which dealt with the a S&E review of A Christmas Story from 1983. If anyone knows of a decent place to upload their old shows, please let me know!