Ok, it's been a while since I have posted. I've been busy in the real world (good graphics, terrible storyline), but I'm back for now.
And boy, have I got some news for you. Ever been on YouTube? There's some amazing work on there, from independent films to online reviews. There's even some pirated work on there, although that has recently caused issues for some legitimate works.
YouTube instituted a new copyright program that sweeps every video on the site, sniffing out any copyrighted works. However, there is one problem with this program. It has no sense for the Fair Use Doctrine and completely stomps it out.
For a full link to the Fair Use Doctrine, click here. However, I will give a quick brief without the legal jargon.
The Fair Use Doctrine has four components:
- The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
- The nature of the copyrighted work
- The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
- The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work
Basically, so long as you are using their copyrighted work for parody or review purposes, you are free to use clips and segments from the work all you want. You cannot however upload the entirety of the work and claim it as your own and try to make money off of it.
This is what the copyright program is supposed to be seeking out, but it instead finds copyrighted work in reviewers' videos, flags them, and then proceeds to demonetize them. Which can be a problem, as some reviewers, like Angry Joe, are relying on this monetization for income.
What YouTube is currently doing is blatantly against the rights given to us from the Supreme Court and it appears like YouTube isn't listening to our argument. This is a fight that we need to take to them and get them to understand. We have a right to parody and a right to review. Otherwise, how will we know if a product is any good before buying it? Too many companies are doing the bait and switch on us, and we need to fight back.
