3 ms·

Google to drop search rankings of sites with many takedown notices

6 points by nsns 14y ago

jdlshore 14y ago
This concerns me, although maybe more than it should. My experience with YouTube has been that rightsholders will lie about what they own. Whether this is because they're malicious or lazy, I don't know. But I do know that I've had many YouTube videos incorrectly claimed by music rights agencies. (To be clear, the videos in question are screencasts of me programming. The only audio is my voice.) When this happens, I have to dispute the claim. In one case [1], the rightsholder confirmed ownership--even though the video is me programming and the only audio is my voice--and now I have no recourse. I can't describe the feeling of anger and powerlessness this has given me. Even though it's just one video and the revenue is in the single digits. Some asshole has claimed my shit as their own, and when I asked for help, the 900-pound playground monitor said I was in the wrong and now refuses to talk to me. So I'm concerned about Google exercising similar unchecked power over search results. Now, I've never had anything like this happen with my website, and I don't know that it's fair to extrapolate my experience with YouTube to Google Search. But there it is: I don't trust Google to evaluate copyright infringement correctly. [1] The video in question is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zHt3zlq_Po http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zHt3zlq_Po This is what Google says about copyright for that video: http://jamesshore.com/images/lets-play-tdd/kickstarter-update12.png http://jamesshore.com/images/lets-play-tdd/kickstarter-updat...
- lotu 14y ago
  > When this happens, I have to dispute the claim. In one case [1], the rightsholder confirmed ownership--even though the video is me programming and the only audio is my voice--and now I have no recourse. You do have a recourse, a DMCA take down notice requires that the requester swear under penalty of perjury that their statements are true. While suing them would be effective and probably unreasonably expensive, a quicker and cheaper solution is to send a letter to the legal department of said company explaining the situation. Do not threaten to sue them in the letter, as that is illegal, instead clearly explain what they did wrong (issued an invalid take down notice) and how to fix it. Lawyers don't like getting sued and they will work to fix this issue on the off chance you decide to sue them. If this was very important to you really could sue them, probably for way less money than you think, as this video does make money but also, the take down notice has damaged your brand and wasted your time all things that are valuable and you can demand compensation for.
  - jdlshore 14y ago
    Thanks for the suggestions. I did send them an email doing just that, actually. I got no response. I could escalate, but it's not clear to me that the time invested would be worth it. (Actually, I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be worth it. My opportunity costs are high.) You mentioned the DMCA, but I'm not so sure YouTube is operating under the DMCA in this matter. My video wasn't taken down, it was just "claimed" under YouTube's own rules. One thing's for certain, I won't be starting anything new on YouTube. I've moved to private content hosting for my new Javascript series. I pay for it, and I like it that way.
    - pasbesoin 14y ago
      Perjury is a felony. It is also grounds for disbarment. Where's the/a/any prosecutor? Where's the ABA? Fail. P.S. Now, Google, I and a lot of other people will see you as taking sides. As others have snarkily commented, elsewhere, how soon will you be deranking YouTube? Fail. Time for us to move on.

6 points by nsns 14y ago

This concerns me, although maybe more than it should. My experience with YouTube has been that rightsholders will lie about what they own. Whether this is because they're malicious or lazy, I don't know. But I do know that I've had many YouTube videos incorrectly claimed by music rights agencies. (To be clear, the videos in question are screencasts of me programming. The only audio is my voice.) When this happens, I have to dispute the claim. In one case [1], the rightsholder confirmed ownership--even though the video is me programming and the only audio is my voice--and now I have no recourse. I can't describe the feeling of anger and powerlessness this has given me. Even though it's just one video and the revenue is in the single digits. Some asshole has claimed my shit as their own, and when I asked for help, the 900-pound playground monitor said I was in the wrong and now refuses to talk to me. So I'm concerned about Google exercising similar unchecked power over search results. Now, I've never had anything like this happen with my website, and I don't know that it's fair to extrapolate my experience with YouTube to Google Search. But there it is: I don't trust Google to evaluate copyright infringement correctly. [1] The video in question is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zHt3zlq_Po http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zHt3zlq_Po This is what Google says about copyright for that video: http://jamesshore.com/images/lets-play-tdd/kickstarter-update12.png http://jamesshore.com/images/lets-play-tdd/kickstarter-updat...

lotu 14y ago
> When this happens, I have to dispute the claim. In one case [1], the rightsholder confirmed ownership--even though the video is me programming and the only audio is my voice--and now I have no recourse. You do have a recourse, a DMCA take down notice requires that the requester swear under penalty of perjury that their statements are true. While suing them would be effective and probably unreasonably expensive, a quicker and cheaper solution is to send a letter to the legal department of said company explaining the situation. Do not threaten to sue them in the letter, as that is illegal, instead clearly explain what they did wrong (issued an invalid take down notice) and how to fix it. Lawyers don't like getting sued and they will work to fix this issue on the off chance you decide to sue them. If this was very important to you really could sue them, probably for way less money than you think, as this video does make money but also, the take down notice has damaged your brand and wasted your time all things that are valuable and you can demand compensation for.
- jdlshore 14y ago
  Thanks for the suggestions. I did send them an email doing just that, actually. I got no response. I could escalate, but it's not clear to me that the time invested would be worth it. (Actually, I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be worth it. My opportunity costs are high.) You mentioned the DMCA, but I'm not so sure YouTube is operating under the DMCA in this matter. My video wasn't taken down, it was just "claimed" under YouTube's own rules. One thing's for certain, I won't be starting anything new on YouTube. I've moved to private content hosting for my new Javascript series. I pay for it, and I like it that way.
  - pasbesoin 14y ago
    Perjury is a felony. It is also grounds for disbarment. Where's the/a/any prosecutor? Where's the ABA? Fail. P.S. Now, Google, I and a lot of other people will see you as taking sides. As others have snarkily commented, elsewhere, how soon will you be deranking YouTube? Fail. Time for us to move on.