The infamous Nyan cat video has disappeared from YouTube, much like a certain video about a certain day of the week. The plot has thickened in this case, however. Although the video’s page explains that the video has been removed due to a copyright claim by creator PRGuitarMan, he insists that he requested no such action and is currently in touch with YouTube to try and get the video reinstated. His website is currently serving as a liveblog of sorts as he tries to correct the situation.
While it may not be of dire importance that the original Nyan cat video is on YouTube at this very second (it’s not like there aren’t any reasonable substitutes), this situation brings to light the way in which YouTube deals copyright infringement accusations. That is to say, with a heavy bias towards the accuser. This bias raises some serious questions as to how issues like this will be handled in the future in order to prevent copyright removal requests from potentially being used as weapons towards controversial videos, considering that proving you’re the owner gets a lot harder when trying to reinstate a video.
Prguitarman states on his website:
Funny how someone can easily make a complaint but to actually prove it the owner has to jump through all of these hoops. FUN TIMES! But seriously, there is a lot of work involved here and it’s pretty stressful.
UPDATE: It’s back!
(Prguitarman via The Daily What)
