Comments on: YouTube Cracking Down on Critical Video Essays

By: Larry Koehn

Larry Koehn — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 04:29:50 +0000

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!

By: Rick Marston

Rick Marston — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:15:31 +0000

The DMCA has a fair use clause. He can contest his banning with youtube.

This has happened to many people.

By: Sheila Adams

Sheila Adams — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:18:51 +0000

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?

By: Sophia

Sophia — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:02:20 +0000

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

======================================================

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.

By: Sophia

Sophia — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:39:51 +0000

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.

By: Tc

Tc — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:27:26 +0000

Ive just had my account disabled! Over 100 videos, some are very personal!

Thats it with my youTube relationship!

By: Lilly

Lilly — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 05:30:37 +0000

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!

By: We Are Cyborgs — Perpetual Assault on Fair Use

We Are Cyborgs — Perpetual Assault on Fair Use — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:05:39 +0000

[...] 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. [...]

By: notwhatyouthink

notwhatyouthink — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 05:25:28 +0000

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!

By: Shooting Down Pictures » Blog Archive » Things I Learned from Losing - and Regaining - My YouTube Account

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:34:06 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Amanda McCormick

Amanda McCormick — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:43:41 +0000

Really sorry to hear this, as I agree with you that Kevin’s work is a worthwhile form of film criticism/commentary.

By: Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:20:07 +0000

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

By: Catherine Grant

Catherine Grant — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:17:55 +0000

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!

By: Jerry Lentz

Jerry Lentz — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:45:12 +0000

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.

By: Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:30:48 +0000

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.

By: Bill Georgaris

Bill Georgaris — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:41:10 +0000

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…?

By: Theodore

Theodore — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:10:29 +0000

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..

By: Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:52:58 +0000

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.

By: Anuj T.

Anuj T. — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:21:21 +0000

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…

By: Evan D.

Evan D. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:49:57 +0000

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.

By: Mike White

Mike White — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:48:13 +0000

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

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:30:42 +0000

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.

By: Karsten

Karsten — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:28:02 +0000

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.