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YouTube Launches Copyright School to Punish Infringers, Led by Happy Tree Friends

by Robert Quigley | 4:55 pm, April 14th, 2011

Let’s be honest here: Even as YouTube embraces more premium video categories like original series, partnerships with distributors like Vevo, and live broadcasts, a good portion of YouTube’s appeal comes from content whose copyright standing is dubious at best. (If you disagree, ask yourself whether you’ve ever used YouTube to watch a music video or clip from a TV show or movie that was uploaded by anyone other than one of its rightsholders.) Indeed, in a now-infamous email unearthed during its legal dispute during Viacom, one of Google’s cofounders wrote that “if you remove the potential copyright infringements …  site traffic and virality will drop to maybe 20% of what it is.”

Google has made some progress towards making friendly with big media companies, but it evidently wants to fight its reputation as a piratical free-for-all. To that end, YouTube has teamed up with the creators of the cheerfully macabre animated series Happy Tree Friends to create something called “Copyright School.” Now, if YouTube receives an infringement notice for a given user’s uploaded video, that user will be required to watch a four-and-a-half minute video about copyright rules and pass a multiple-choice quiz on the topic before being allowed to upload any more videos. Repeat offenders still risk having their accounts terminated, however.

Video below:

(via NYT)

  • http://www.facebook.com/seyeau Richard Seyeau

    lmfao

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1482006251 Lasse Henden

    I no longer have issues with Copyright. YouTube on the other hand – has no longer any value as an actor in the free society (or had after they deleted George Carlings vids, after he was dead.) I think plastic dildoes deserves more rights than protecting ownership of dildoes inherited by those who made them/used them. Yes, you read it, but I own it. You may never speak of this message again.

  • Rozeboosje

    The problem with this as well as every other thing YouTube have implemented on the whole Copyright issue is that when you are accused of “copyright infringement” the base assumption is that you are guilty as charged. No questions asked. The possibility that people may file false accusations simply in order to shut somebody up (in the VLOGging sphere) has obviously never occurred to any of these muppets, no matter how often we have pointed out to YouTube that the DMCA system is being abused as a censorship tool.

  • Thecurmudgen

    The bigger problem is with false filing. Too many people have lost their accounts over false DMCAs and while Youtube addressed this in the video nothing is getting done. There needs to be a better system in place for reviewing videos that are flagged and/or DMCA’d to make sure people don’t lose videos and their accounts only because someone doesn’t like what they say.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rodrigo-Girão/698072142 Rodrigo Girão

    We don’t need “education”, we need to have it ABOLISHED.

  • Knightyme

    In the above vid they mention, a ‘valid’ notification (in YT speak, *any* notification, from anyone), and the ”vid will be removed in accordance with the law” this is where YT messes up many vids are within the fair use clause of the DMCA law and as such cannot, or at least should not. legally be removed from the site.

    One way to curb the false flag, is to put a strike on the accusing account if it is shown to me malicious, and if it is a particularly new account associate the IP as well.

  • Anon

    RiP: A Remix Manifesto http://films.nfb.ca/rip-a-remix-manifesto/ if you haven’t watched, you don’t know anything about copy rights.
    i have nothing else to say.

  • Rozeboosje

    “in YT speak, *any* notification, from anyone”

    It’s not really “YT speak”, it’s DMCA speak. It is not YouTube’s place to decide what claims are or aren’t valid. That’s what the “safe haven” provisions in the DMCA were created for. In order for YouTube to be able to continue operating legally despite the fact that so many of its users blatantly upload copyrighted material, they must be seen to act immediately when receiving *any* DMCA claim. They have no choice in that matter. What they *would* have a choice in, and where they *do* fail miserably, is that they are very reluctant to share claimant information with people facing a DMCA claim. They should share this immediately and willingly.

    And I agree 100% with what you’re saying about how there should be stiff penalties associated with false DMCAing.


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