‘YouTube Copyright School’ – Remixed and Mixed Up

Claude AlmansiBy Claude Almansi
Editor, Accessibility Issues
ETCJ Associate Administrator

In his lecture, “The Architecture of Access to Scientific Knowledge: Just How Badly We Have Messed This Up” (at CERN, Geneva, CH. April 18, 2011), Lawrence Lessig discussed YouTube’s new copyright school. (See 35:42 – 39:46 in the subtitled and transcribed video of his lecture.) The YouTube Copyright School video he showed and commented was uploaded by YouTube on March 24, 2011, then integrated into what looks like an  interactive tutorial, also entitled YouTube Copyright School, with a quiz on the side.

More information about this “school” was given on the YouTube Official Blog in “YouTube Copyright Education (Remixed)” (April 14, 2011):

If we receive a copyright notification for one of your videos, you’ll now be required to attend YouTube Copyright School, which involves watching a copyright tutorial and passing a quiz to show that you’ve paid attention and understood the content before uploading more content to YouTube.

YouTube has always had a policy to suspend users who have received three uncontested copyright notifications. This policy serves as a strong deterrent to copyright offenders. However, we’ve found that in some cases, a one-size-fits-all suspension rule doesn’t always lead to the right result. Consider, for example, a long-time YouTube user who received two copyright notifications four years ago but who’s uploaded thousands of legitimate videos since then without a further copyright notification. Until now, the four-year-old notifications would have stayed with the user forever despite a solid track record of good behavior, creating the risk that one new notification – possibly even a fraudulent notification – would result in the suspension of the account. We don’t think that’s reasonable. So, today we’ll begin removing copyright strikes from user’s accounts in certain limited circumstances, contingent upon the successful completion of YouTube Copyright School, as well as a solid demonstrated record of good behavior over time. Expiration of strikes is not guaranteed, and as always, YouTube may terminate an account at any time for violating our Terms of Service.

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IFPI, P2P and an Article that Disappeared

(Last updated 7/23/17 03:55PM)
Claude AlmansiBy Claude Almansi
Editor, Accessibility Issues
ETCJ Associate Administrator

[Note added 4.5.11: My apologies to Claude and our readers. I accidentally released this article a few days ago before it was ready, and in doing so I caused quite a confusion. Claude’s erudition in a wide range of fields is legend in ETCJ, and her sense of irony and humor as well as wit, combined with her passion in standing up for her beliefs, make her one of the most entertaining, enlightening, and popular writers on our staff. In asking her to expand on this piece, my intent was to make her works even more accessible to readers who may not share her level of expertise. -Editor]

Note: The first version of this text was only a brief note about the odd disappearance after a few hours of an article describing the interest the German tax authorities are taking in the affairs of the Swiss branch of IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), more particularly in the  relations between the Swiss IFPI and  IPGate.

However, Jim Shimabukuro, our chief editor, rightly pointed out that this note was difficult to follow in its concision. So this is an expanded version, with more about the background of that disappeared article, and something about the educational relevance of this matter. My former title does not fit this revised version, so  I have changed it; but as the draft has already been indexed by search engines, I kept its original URL.

Apologies to those of you who thought that this piece had been deleted, maybe due to pressure exerted by IFPI: I only set it on “private”  while I was editing it. Thanks to Franklin Trankett who e-mailed me about possible misinterpretations of its temporary disappearance.

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UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Copyright Committee – 14th Session

Accessibility 4 All by Claude AlmansiThe 14th Session of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Copyright Committee will take place from June 7 to June 9 in Paris. Two of  the available working documents for that meeting give further information on UNESCO’s “anti-piracy” policy (already discussed in UNESCO, World Anti-Piracy Observatory and YouTube on this blog):

UNESCO World Anti-Piracy Observatory IGC(1971)/XIV/5B

WAPO covers 52% of UNESCO member countries

UNESCO World Anti-Piracy Observatory IGC(1971)/XIV/5B  (available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic), apart from the information already made available by UNESCO on the World Anti-Piracy Observatory (WAPO) site and in the French Wikipedia article about it, reveals that only 52% of the UNESCO member countries answered the survey on which WAPO bases the information concerning national copyright laws and “anti-piracy” measures. Continue reading