YouTube - not safe any more
There is a thread on Kawoosh, started last summer, where we were discussing whether or not it was a good idea to be posting music videos to YouTube. Was the exposure something we, as a fandom, could withstand? Was the free hosting worth the very public venue? Would MGM take action against us?
Those questions are being answered on YouTube right this minute. And the answers are, in order, "no", "no", and "yes".
Music videos are being removed from YouTube for copyright violation, and according the emails being sent out, it is MGM doing the smacking.
The Music Videos thread and most of the ship threads on GW contain numerous posts about this. It started with the people who were posting whole episodes, and now it has spread to encompass music videos as well. Vids are disappearing, being replaced with "This video has been removed due to terms of use violations," and emails are being sent informing the posters that they are breaking the law and that MGM has directed them to stop.
I've never hidden or tried to gloss over my serious dislike of YouTube (and MySpace, and every other streaming video site like them). I've been saying for almost a full year now, everywhere the discussion came up, that using such public sites to host videos was a bad idea. I have tried to explain just how dangerous it was, how detrimental to the vidding community as a whole it could be, how making videos easily accessible to the world at large was too risky to be worth it. I warned about MGM's legal department taking action, that when YouTube grew too big to ignore they would be forced to act.
And what did I get in response? "But my hosting is so expensive...", "But I couldn't do this without YouTube...", "But look how many vids there are now...", "But we're not making any money; they'll leave us alone..."
In short, I got a lot of excuses, quite a bit of attitude, and not a single person actually listened to what I was saying. Not a single person thought about the danger to the community as a whole over their own wants and needs. Not a single person believed that what I said would happen would actually happen.
And it has happened. It is happening. I wish to hell it wasn't, but it is, and this is where we are now.
How long do we have before sites like Kawoosh are served with C&D orders? How long until MGM forces me to close The AlphaSite forever? How long until the lawyers get really involved? Can they stop with just YouTube, or do they now have to move on to MySpace? Will they be content with just the public venues or will they move on to personal websites, like TAS, from the credits on videos that I neither posted nor had the ability to remove or get removed?
Will they stop at music vids or will they move on to fan fiction? Will anyone have the financial stability to stand up and actually get this thing decided in court (there has never been a "fair use" ruling in regards to derivative fan works like music vids and fan fic), or will we all be forced, by the fact that we are average everyday people with bills to pay who can't afford multi-million dollar lawyers to protect us, to roll over and give up?
This is not a "what if" situation any more. The giant that is MGM's legal department has been awakened, and I don't know that any one of us is "safe" any more.
I didn't want worldwide publicity. I didn't want worldwide exposure. I've been yelled at, insulted, called every name in the book and more, all because I tried my damndest to keep my vids as under the radar as possible. I made them in a small fandom community, and that's where I wanted them to stay.
And if TAS gets taken down now, not because of anything I have done, but because MGM has followed to credits on my videos (not posted by me) from the public venue to my private one... what do I do? What can I do? I didn't ask for the publicity, I didn't seek it out, and I sure as hell didn't want it. But now, I just might have no choice.
So... to everyone who has ever posted music videos to YouTube, whether yours or mine or anyone else's... you tell me, was it really worth it? And who the hell were you to make a decision like that for me?
*edited to add the links to the relevant thread on Kawoosh!
People posting others vids & legal stuff
YouTube - not safe any more
Those questions are being answered on YouTube right this minute. And the answers are, in order, "no", "no", and "yes".
Music videos are being removed from YouTube for copyright violation, and according the emails being sent out, it is MGM doing the smacking.
The Music Videos thread and most of the ship threads on GW contain numerous posts about this. It started with the people who were posting whole episodes, and now it has spread to encompass music videos as well. Vids are disappearing, being replaced with "This video has been removed due to terms of use violations," and emails are being sent informing the posters that they are breaking the law and that MGM has directed them to stop.
I've never hidden or tried to gloss over my serious dislike of YouTube (and MySpace, and every other streaming video site like them). I've been saying for almost a full year now, everywhere the discussion came up, that using such public sites to host videos was a bad idea. I have tried to explain just how dangerous it was, how detrimental to the vidding community as a whole it could be, how making videos easily accessible to the world at large was too risky to be worth it. I warned about MGM's legal department taking action, that when YouTube grew too big to ignore they would be forced to act.
And what did I get in response? "But my hosting is so expensive...", "But I couldn't do this without YouTube...", "But look how many vids there are now...", "But we're not making any money; they'll leave us alone..."
In short, I got a lot of excuses, quite a bit of attitude, and not a single person actually listened to what I was saying. Not a single person thought about the danger to the community as a whole over their own wants and needs. Not a single person believed that what I said would happen would actually happen.
And it has happened. It is happening. I wish to hell it wasn't, but it is, and this is where we are now.
How long do we have before sites like Kawoosh are served with C&D orders? How long until MGM forces me to close The AlphaSite forever? How long until the lawyers get really involved? Can they stop with just YouTube, or do they now have to move on to MySpace? Will they be content with just the public venues or will they move on to personal websites, like TAS, from the credits on videos that I neither posted nor had the ability to remove or get removed?
Will they stop at music vids or will they move on to fan fiction? Will anyone have the financial stability to stand up and actually get this thing decided in court (there has never been a "fair use" ruling in regards to derivative fan works like music vids and fan fic), or will we all be forced, by the fact that we are average everyday people with bills to pay who can't afford multi-million dollar lawyers to protect us, to roll over and give up?
This is not a "what if" situation any more. The giant that is MGM's legal department has been awakened, and I don't know that any one of us is "safe" any more.
I didn't want worldwide publicity. I didn't want worldwide exposure. I've been yelled at, insulted, called every name in the book and more, all because I tried my damndest to keep my vids as under the radar as possible. I made them in a small fandom community, and that's where I wanted them to stay.
And if TAS gets taken down now, not because of anything I have done, but because MGM has followed to credits on my videos (not posted by me) from the public venue to my private one... what do I do? What can I do? I didn't ask for the publicity, I didn't seek it out, and I sure as hell didn't want it. But now, I just might have no choice.
So... to everyone who has ever posted music videos to YouTube, whether yours or mine or anyone else's... you tell me, was it really worth it? And who the hell were you to make a decision like that for me?
*edited to add the links to the relevant thread on Kawoosh!
People posting others vids & legal stuff
YouTube - not safe any more