- Categories:
- art, audio-visual, computer vision, copyright
Ever wonder what happens when you’ve been accused of violating copyright multiple times on YouTube? First, you get a redirect to YouTube’s “Copyright School” whenever you visit YouTube, forcing you to watch a cartoon of Happy Tree Friends where the main character is dressed as an actual pirate:
Second, I’m guessing, your account will be banned. Third, you cry and wonder why you ever violated copyright in the first place.
In my case, I’ve disputed every one of the 4 copyright violation notices that I’ve received under grounds of Fair Use and Fair Dealing. Here’s what happens when you file a dispute using YouTube’s online form (click for high-res):
3 of the 4 have been dropped after I’ve filed disputes, though I’m still waiting to hear about the response to the above dispute. Read the dispute letter to Sony ATV and UPMG Publishers in full here.
The picture above shows a few stills from what my Smash Ups look like. The process described in greater detail on createdigitalmotion.com is part of my ongoing research into how existing content can be transformed into artistic styles reminiscent of analytic cubist, figurative, and futurist paintings. The process to create the videos uses content-based information retrieval techniques that I would assume are very similar (though likely not as advanced) as the techniques used to flag the video as a duplicate copy in the first place, YouTube’s Content ID System. Until Sony and UPMG respond, the infringing video is still available on YouTube:
Regardless of my disputes, I’m now redirected to YouTube’s Copyright School whenever I visit YouTube (until I successfully complete the test):
A bit about Happy Tree Friends – it is, according to Wikipedia, “extremely violent, with almost every episode featuring blood, pain, and gruesome deaths…depicting bloodshed and dismemberment in a vivid manner.” Nevermind. I’m a copyright violater, I can handle a little dismemberment. In fact, that is exactly what I’ve done to the “Copyright School” video, dismember it with the content of 70 videos of Happy Tree Friends using the same process which brought me to YouTube’s “Copyright School” in the first place:
I hope Russell the Pirate doesn’t feel his copyright is being violated.
Related: Copyright Violation Notice from “Rightster”, Intention in Copyright, EFF Wins Renewal of Smartphone Jailbreaking Rights Plus New Legal Protections for Video Remixing, An open letter to Sony ATV and UMPG