Here is another example of how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is failing us. YouTube user jmkaos put up a video collection of every single James Bond movie opening (as of Nov. 2006 which is when the upcoming linked article was posted). Cimematical has a little story which embeds all the videos, except that every single one of them has been taken down. I can’t really see how these videos harm the movie studios, license, or the James Bond intellectual property in anyway. I believe they actually help all the above and would make you want to see the movies again. I don’t know how long each clip was nor do I remember how long of a clip is considered fair use, but I am going to assume they fit within that margin.
The more I think about it, I’d be willing to bet that it wasn’t even the movie companies that complained about them which forces YouTube to take them down. I’ll be willing to believe it was one of those people who has nothing better to do than make a fuss and probably watches TV with a pad and pencil,* ready to note any broadcast that offends them personally so they can fire off some hate mail. You know the kind of people I’m talking about. Jay Leno makes a joke about Arizona and before the laughter dies somebody out there is writing a letter, “As a resident of Arizona, I am offended by your suggestion that…”
The point being that, just like YouTube does not have the time, resources or funds to manually review each claim of breach of copyright; they probably don’t spend too much time checking to see if the complaint is actually coming from the copyright holders. Give me a relevant sounding email address to a YouTube post with some broadcast media in it, and I can get it pulled. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, YouTube is liable for violations if they have been presented with a violation notice from the copyright holder. So if somebody they think is the copyright holder tells them to take something down, they do. Better safe than looking down the barrel of lawsuits and federal copyright violations.
It was kinda funny how John McCain got bit in the ass by Digital Millennium Copyright Act during his campaign seeing as he voted for it. Not cool the way he wanted a two tier system for "Important" people like him versus the unwashed masses like us... a two tier unfunded mandate system that YouTube would foot the bill for.
*Yes, pad and pencil. These nut jobs are good and they know that hand written letters have more weight than typed letters or email. Note that if you are ever writing your congressman. If you hand write it, they take it more seriously. If you take the time to hand write out a letter, put a stamp on it, and drop it in the mailbox; you are probably the kind of person who gets up early to head to the voting booth on election. Fire off an email, worse yet an email that you copied from a website and just added your name to the bottom; you are probably a reactionary dimwit who likes to complain and feel like you are part of something, but are actually too lazy to make the effort to vote.
3 comments:
That's interesting. My handwriting is not the neatest, so I actually prefer to type up my letters of complaint. I was of the opinion that a typed letter gave off a more professional vibe and was more likely to be taken seriously. Of course more so than an email which anyone can send in the blink of an eye, but, you're saying typed letters may not carry the weight of a hand written letter? Or is that only with respect to letters written to your congress(wo)man, senator, etc?
I was told this by a girl whose ex-boyfriend, a congressional aid, supposedly told her. So the information was in the context of writing your congress-person. As I already knew, hardly anything you write to them actually gets read by them. It is all read by their aids who then give them the gist of the information. But supposedly, hand-written letters are rated higher than typed though I am sure they will mark you off for bad penmen ship.
...and are you saying typed, or printed out and mailed?
Failed Word Verification Attempts: 1
I don't have anything really to add, I just thought the captcha was funny.
doodo
I shit you not...pun intended!
hahahaha
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