You’re all aware that, as a private company and service, there are no laws being violated here? Google could make it their policy to require proof of IP ownership and three forms of government ID before posting every single video if they wanted to. As a private service, they don’t have to guarantee anything. The fact is that these policies were put in place to combat the “wild west” atmosphere that YouTube had before Google’s acquisition (it was really bad, for those who don’t remember, to the point where people said that the lawsuits alone would bankrupt Google) as well as the still-rampant abuse of the system by uploaders attempting to capitalize off of protected IPs. Whether you agree with the policies or not is unimportant. The Blender Foundation chose to upload Sintel to YouTube. YouTube’s method for detecting and removing copyrighted material is well-known at this point. It may lean more in the favor of copyright holders, and it may be flawed, but it is how it is, and pretending that Blender and its users were somehow intentionally attacked here only serves to make our community look immature and prone to knee-jerk reactions.
Seriously, YouTube is a service that we choose to use. No one is forcing it down our throats. There are alternatives out there, perhaps this could be an opportunity for them to grab part of the market share. But, they are in no way breaking a law or attacking our community.
No dude, just … NO!
An illegal contract is unenforceable. YouTube is beholden to National and International law. Fraudulent copyright claim is fraudulent copyright claim, PERIOD!!
These excuses “it’s their website and they can do what they want. you don’t have to use it if you don’t like it” are total and complete BS!!
freakin corporate apologists here, WTF >:(
I have a feeling that Sony will not enjoy the bad press from an event like this, I imagine it was not their but some Youtube automated bot.
Hopefully they will complain to Youtube to improve their system as we hear many stories of small producers uploading content and some mongrel copyright troll or some major producer who produced something that sounds sort of similar takes ownership and gets all their advertising credit. Which then takes months to correct if ever.
Where do you have the information that Sony had ANY direct decision on blocking the Sintel video? Youtube is not owned by Sony, Sony don’t run a bot, Youtube run a bot.
This is more like- “I filled my car with fuel. Then it drove itself and crashed into the window whilst I was sleeping due to a bug in the ECU”.
Or, “I initiated the auto park and the car just accelerated forward uncontrollably.”
You guys like to hue & cry when the little guy is guilty until proven innocent, but when you talk about a “big bad company” they always seem to be guilty until proven innocent. Double standard much.
Youtube uses an automated content scanner. Since Sony used for their work parts of Sintel, the content scanner detected that part of the Sintel video was identical to part of a Sony video and flagged the Sintel one. Some time ago, if I remember well, a Sony video was flagged because… it contained Sony prioprietary content :evilgrin:.
Sony (72 billion $ revenue, 146000 employees) does not even know that Blender exists.
YouTube’s reaction on this is pretty much self-defense…
If I post content on my website that infringes other’s copyrights, I will soon receive a cease and desist letter and will possibly be sued. If I on the other hand remove content that I’m allowed to publish - nothing (legal) will happen.
So, immediately blocking disputed content is a perfectly reasonable business practice imho. What’s the big deal?
Nobody’s forcing Sony to use the bot (most content providers don’t). In fact, Sony, Viacom and other corporations forced Youtube to implement the bot by threatening to sue them for ridiculous amounts of money if they didn’t. So, no, it’s most definitely Sony.
The bot did its’ job perfectly, it was Sony who mistakenly submitted Sintel as a reference file which resulted in a fraudulent copyright claim. This isn’t the first time it has happened, some months ago a Brazilian television company blocked BBB the same way. You could blame Google/YouTube about how easily abused this system is, but truth is that’s exactly how Sony and the rest of the copyright mafia want it to be. It’s pretty unsettling to think that a copyright troll can even monetize someone else’s work using this system and there’s nothing an author can do about it other than file a dispute and wait for a response…
To all you folks who are saying Sony had nothing to do with this, it was all YouTube’s fault, and it was “just” a bot error.
Okay!! … Well then, how come YouTube’s auto-bots didn’t flag the video as owned by BF when Sony posted it to THEIR YouTuber channel, eh? … Instead, years later, BF gets flagged as a copyright violator after Sony puts Sintel up on their channel (even only in part)
That’s how you’re entire “not Sony’s fault” argument falls apart.
and jpb06, Sony is WELL AWARE of Blender’s existence. It is fast growing 3D software, and Sony has their own interests in that field. … Also, the fact that they used Sintel at all shows that they know full well about Blender’s existence.
Perfectly reasonable business practice? Wow … Corporate whore much? There’s nothing “perfectly reasonable” about YouTube’s policies regarding pulling videos … Videos should NOT be pulled without a direct infringement notice, which should THEN be verified.
I don’t see a problem with using a bot to scan millions and millions of videos to find your property being ripped and probably profited from. Sony’s content is not free to be had or used, they have a right to have their content removed or threaten to sue the host. The most efficient way is to use a bot.
The problem is with the implementation. Or someone forget to set some varied ownership flag on a video Sony uploaded.
It’s not like Sony ring up Youtube and said, hello Mr sir would you delete that Sintel video - it contains a melody we want to use in a movie, thanks.
It doesnt fall apart at all. Sony is a major publisher and content creator. Theres obviously a system in place which is prioritized around major lables and publishers. Theres actually some logic behind this… most copyright infringement is coming from people taking content from the major content suppliers, so while it might seem one sided, at the end of the day its ultimately logical. This doesnt mean we have to like it, but it makes sense.
There are a lot of horror stories with Youtubes ID system, due to legal threat its quite heavy handed and sides on the side of error. Blender films shouldnt be some exception to these horror stories, nor should we get all upset and blow up over something fairly common. Its stupid, but it happens.
The problem with using bots is situations EXACTLY like this, which happen all the time. All-too-many people get no resolution to fraudulent take-downs because it’s just too hard to fight.
The system is set up with corporate favoritism first and foremost.
There should be NO infringement claims without direct request, and then only after total proof of infringement.
The YouTube system totally breaks fair-use as well. It is blind and idiotic, and doesn’t … which has been shown repeatedly.
I can’t believe people are actually defending YouTube and Sony in this. … Have y’all been suckling on the corporate teet that long?
Sony is not a “content creator” … they ARE a publisher and legal powerhouse. The constantly abuse artists and the law because they can.
Sony, along with the rest of the MPAA and RIAA, are the ones that essentially force the system-as-it-is to be put in place.
And yes, we SHOULD be angry about this, precisely because of how common it is. We shouldn’t be okay with it and just say, “Oh, it happens. Oh well.” … That’s utterly irresponsible.
I don’t see a problem with using a bot to identify videos either, but each takedown should go through the DMCA process which forces them to do their due diligence.