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How WGBH tried to get YouTube to ban a government video because of its title
By adamg on Wed, 08/26/2015 - 11:47pm
Seems our local bigfoot public broadcaster issued a demand under the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act that YouTube take down a video called "Energy -- The American Experience" under the assumption it was a copyright infringement of its American Experience series when, in fact, it was a 1970s Department of Energy production, one that is in the public domain - and published well before WGBH started producing its show.
TechDirt reports the details and follows up with reaction from Carl Malamud, who had posted the video:
Mr. Brass [one of WGBH's lawyers] seemed quite peeved that I was upset, even though I was just minding my own business on the Internet when some hooligans from Boston came over and smacked me for no reason at all, then left for a weekend at the Cape.
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Comments
My favorite non-Koch Brothers WGBH moment
They were fundraising one weekend (hard to believe, but there it is) with a Pete Seeger/Labor documentary while their employees were in some kind of job action. When I called in to point out the slight disconnect, I was connected to a call in center in Tennessee....
Local, and commercial free...
Mismanagement at WGBH.
WGBH Captioning Services mismanaged by the WGBH Media Access Group fails to make available the Full Text of Captions for hard of hearing folks, for Deaf folks, for all folks from the webcasts and cablecasts of Public Meetings of Boston City Council. Routinely WGBH is tone deaf to our communities' constituencies!
I've done a take down notice.
There is a one click retraction function in your dash board called 'Submit Retraction'.
Koch TV is just thrashing and flailing as it slowly crashes and burns.
I also had a strike removed by just changing some sound track music.
WGBH takes chicken feed from
WGBH takes chicken feed from libertarian billionare and it is suddenly their channel? All the decades WGBH took chicken feed from multiple liberal billionaires it was independent?
What ever happened to the idea of public tv being tolerant to a diversity of views left to right and being voluntarily funded by viewers like all of us?
The Cult
..of virtuous selfishness saturation bombs the public with it's hateful drivel from every possible quarter, 24/7.
It's almost funny that it wastes time on a crippled wreck like public television. But then, look at the money they blew trying to elect Romney.
At this point the Koch's seem to know they are losing.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/koch-brothers-brave-the-s...
Maybe, instead of whining about mistreated billionaires, you could edify us all with a heart felt summary of why money grubbing, material status seeking and the doctrine of MeMeMe is actually such a grand benefit to all.
I'll start from my end.
I like fairness. The selfish tend to give it short shrift as it hampers greed. But it is a fundamental of a robust social contract that requires diligence to keep money grubber encroachments at bay.
I like people and experiences more than stuff. My status comes from service to my community and from a life focused on stewardship rather than hogging. Your stuff just laughs at you when you're ready for a gurney.
That's all I got. I can't wait to hear about all I'm missing from not embracing selfishness in a bear hug with welcoming arms.,
I hate to say it, but I just
I hate to say it, but I just watched that entire US DOE video. It's actually well done.
I used to give money to WGBH
But I stopped when they constructed that ridiculous and ridiculously expensive video screen on their new building on the Mass Pike. What a waste of money.
When I went to the open house
When I went to the open house for the new WGBH building, they said they weren't planning on having that giant screen. But someone donated it, and they accepted it.
GBH is protecting the
intrinsic value of its tote bags.
DMCA Takedown Notices
Are becoming increasingly automated, and the filters are so broad and contextually unaware/incapable that more and more issues like this are appearing.
A few weeks back, I read an article about how the production company of that allegedly terrible (I won't see it to actually find out) new Adam Sandler movie Pixels issued a DMCA takedown to Vimeo. They managed to take down a ton of videos with the word "Pixels" in the title, including the award winning short film that the feature film was inspired by! The best part of the whole thing, is that there were 0 pirated or unauthorized videos related to the movie, and the only video related to it that they actually managed to take down was their own official trailer.
That said, whether or not this WGBH takedown notice was automated, the fact that an actual person then gave the video owner a hard time is true incompetence.
As an occasional donor...
I assume their legal counsel is involved and I can't believe that this is the sort of thing that they'd waste money in legal fees on. It is sloppy legal work at best, and it might make me reconsider the next time I think of making a donation.
Let them know they did a very crappy thing
It actually appears they did 2 crappy things. Used DCMA to take down the clip, then gave the complainer a hard time.
Let them know.
http://www.wgbh.org/about/contact.cfm
It could be just a Script Bots
Sometimes Media companies will use a Script Bots to file takedown/copyright infringement cases , its likely that they program the bot to find on youtube anything that had titles such as "American Experience," and "FrontLine." Then file a take down notice. Even if its not an actual property of WGBH/PBS.
This happened before with the movie "Pixel," They files copyright notices on anything with the title "Pixel" in it, even if it wasn't related to the movie, it was so bad that it even sent a take down notice on the movie studios own trailer they posted online.
But this brings up a serious subject about Youtube and Copyright which is for another time
EDIT: I posted this around 9:30am, the internet where i am was sloooow. So Yea, someone beat me too it
See a few comments up
:p
Yea you beat me, Pressed
Yea you beat me, Pressed submit and the internet was slow, it took forever.
Just messing with you
I'm glad someone else saw the Pixels thing though, it's really amusing.
Too much time on their hands
WGBH should use some of that time and effort to produce some more of their own shows instead of airing reruns from British broadcasters.
But I will give them a thumbs up for the always hilarious Beat the press of Friday Evenings.
always entertaining to
see Callie Crossley find a conspiracy against women of color behind every rock and rill. Apparently I was out of town the week she was appointed as best practices monitor/spokesperson for every professional journalist on the planet. Remarkable lack of self awareness.
Very True
Her Rant here is a great example of that.
She doesn't know why a young woman of color was let go, but she rants anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zijTh3_uQTU&spfreload=10
WGBH apology- accepted by Carl
https://twitter.com/carlmalamud/status/635869584017326080
https://twitter.com/carlmalamud/status/635869584017326080
What is required
You know the captchas that prevent robots from spamming the comments here?
Why aren't organizations like YouTube and Vimeo putting those in place for every DMCA complaint? If you aren't a human who looked at the video and determined that it violates you/your organization's digital rights, then you don't get to submit a request, one at a time.
The fact that it's automated is irrelevant
The fact that DMCA notices are issued by script bots is legally and morally irrelevant.
It doesn't matter whether WGBH uses senior IP partners, paralegals, a Malaysian call center, trained monkeys, or automated script bots -- the fact is that WGBH issued a DMCA takedown notice with reckless disregard for the actual facts.
What a ridiculous argument.
What a ridiculous argument.
Exactly.
You tube takes them very seriously and will make a strike against you if they catch you making a false claim.