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YouTube demonetizes public domain 'Steamboat Willie' video after copyright claim

mashable.com

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Re: YouTube demonetizes public domain 'Steamboat Willie' video after copyright claim

#11

Post by chii »

globular-toast wrote: post #9

YouTube could choose to continue to honour Disney's copyright forever. Yet another reason to get away from centralised platforms. YouTube could have been good. It could have spurred a copyright revolution. But instead it just bowed down to the copyright industry so that a few execs could be in the top 1% of humanity during their short existence.

> But instead it just bowed down to the copyright industry

you mean youtube tried to obey the law?

You cannot just unilaterally decide not to obey copyright laws.

> It could have spurred a copyright revolution.

I am not in favour of vigilantism - the right way to change the law is to participate in the public civil procedures. For example, if enough people joined the Pirate Party (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Pirate_Party), such laws could be changed.

It's just that most people dont give a shit about copyright, and this is the democratic outcome.

Re: YouTube demonetizes public domain 'Steamboat Willie' video after copyright claim

#12

Post by moomin »

In hbomberguy’s recent video about plagiarism, he points out that one of the dumb side effects of YouTube’s content ID policy is that claiming is so common and usually bad that people assume actual serious infringements are benign.

Re: YouTube demonetizes public domain 'Steamboat Willie' video after copyright claim

#13

Post by orra »

that_guy_iain wrote: post #6
adaml_623 wrote: post #2

A positive take on this is that this is a clear pass/fail unit test on YouTube's copyright system.

This isn't really an issue with YouTube's copyright system but in copyright laws.

No, there's a problem with both. This was a Content ID complaint, not a DMCA takedown.

Re: YouTube demonetizes public domain 'Steamboat Willie' video after copyright claim

#14

Post by japanman185 »

bni wrote: post #10

If someone scans a recent DVD release of SW, is it still public domain? Or must you have access to an original film reel from the early 1900 and scan that? Do anyone have besides in some Disney archive? Has issues like that ever been clarified?

[dead]

Re: YouTube demonetizes public domain 'Steamboat Willie' video after copyright claim

#15

Post by chrismorgan »

adaml_623 wrote: post #2

A positive take on this is that this is a clear pass/fail unit test on YouTube's copyright system.

It’s only a valid positive take if it were in any way novel. But there are already loads of such cases. The Content ID system is just broken by design, and they’ve clearly demonstrated no interest in fixing it. The system is designed for abuse.

Most notably here, even a successful dispute on the grounds of the work being in the public domain doesn’t stop the claimer from claiming new videos that match, which it very obviously should.

My experience on public domain English hymns: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27004892.

Re: YouTube demonetizes public domain 'Steamboat Willie' video after copyright claim

#16

Post by stuartjohnson12 »

bni wrote: post #10

If someone scans a recent DVD release of SW, is it still public domain? Or must you have access to an original film reel from the early 1900 and scan that? Do anyone have besides in some Disney archive? Has issues like that ever been clarified?

In the UK, it was recently ruled that copyright could only apply to things not designed solely to replicate the original artefact. The context was museums licensing photographs of artefacts while keeping the originals locked away.

From what I understand it's not been tested significantly in the US yet, though I could be wrong.

Re: YouTube demonetizes public domain 'Steamboat Willie' video after copyright claim

#18

Post by ClassyJacket »

terramex wrote: post #17
kzrdude wrote: post #4

I assume content id database entries have expiry dates

In most countries works go into public domain XX years after death of author. Predicting date of death is non-trivial problem.

Who is the author of a collaborative work like a film?

Re: YouTube demonetizes public domain 'Steamboat Willie' video after copyright claim

#19

Post by luismedel »

terramex wrote: post #17
kzrdude wrote: post #4

I assume content id database entries have expiry dates

In most countries works go into public domain XX years after death of author. Predicting date of death is non-trivial problem.

Third hard problem in computing after the infamous "naming things", "cache invalidation" and "off by 1 errors".

Re: YouTube demonetizes public domain 'Steamboat Willie' video after copyright claim

#20

Post by arghwhat »

chii wrote: post #11
globular-toast wrote: post #9

YouTube could choose to continue to honour Disney's copyright forever. Yet another reason to get away from centralised platforms. YouTube could have been good. It could have spurred a copyright revolution. But instead it just bowed down to the copyright industry so that a few execs could be in the top 1% of humanity during their short existence.

> But instead it just bowed down to the copyright industry you mean youtube tried to obey the law? You cannot just unilaterally decide not to obey copyright laws. > It could have spurred a copyright revolution. I am not in favour of vigilantism - the right way to change the law is to participate in the public civil procedures. For example, if enough people joined the Pirate Party ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite…

> you mean youtube tried to obey the law?

To be clear, YouTube's goal is not to obey the law, but to minimize their loss. This is why they entirely disregard key aspects and intents of the law, leaving fair use and fair process as a joke.

Their implementation harms creators and redirects their earnings to companies that were never legally, contractually or morally entitled to it.

> the right way to change the law is to participate in the public civil procedures.

Unless there is going to be fines for not allowing copyright unencumbered content to be displayed and monetized, no change of law is going to help here. Copyright law is twisted because of companies like Disney, but the underlying problem is that YouTube will only ever care about avoiding expensive litigation.

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