When the paf.com video was blocked in North America, we posted it on YouTube only to be taken down by Experiment Ensam
By Stephen Pate – More than 100,000 people watched the video we put up on YouTube in the story Would You Enjoy A One Man Concert From Bob Dylan?. The original Swedish video was blocked in North America.
I am well aware of copyright laws and had a good case for US Fair Play and Canadian Fair Dealing allowance of the 14 minute video clip. We didn’t claim copyright and clearly said who owned it but that the video was part of a news report.
We would have taken the video down on request but that’s not how it rolls these days on YouTube. Experiment Ensam / paf.com played the heavy by issuing a takedown notice and posting the video themselves.
They could have been polite and sent an email but maybe they think I was rude. Who knows? We posted it openly as a public service news report. 100,000 people enjoyed watching it and some read the accompanying story.
Was there money lost to Experiment Ensam? I don’t think so. You can monetize content on YouTube but it is meaningless until you hit millions of views. paf.com is a huge media conglomerate and they like to push their weight around.
When YouTube did the take-down on demand from Experiment Ensam it was like a slap in the face but quickly fixed with the new embed code.
I could have fought it. The video was posted on YouTube Canada and its use was clearly allowed under Canadian Copyright law. I’ve fought bigger battles before – during the Olympics IOC lawyers from Switzerland threatened me.
Like Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers say, I won’t back down. the video is still live.
I posted a notice on Facebook “paf.com posted their own video on YouTube and took down the one I put up a few days ago – no problem for me since I was only undoing the block in North America, proving once again that big and little brother is watching. 99,000 people saw it before it was taken down. that was cool.”
YouTube is pretty cut and dried about take-downs. Three strikes and you’re out. So this was one. If I foobar, in their estimation, twice again I’m canned. SFA in my life but they take it real serious, considering people are posting millions of copyright violations a day.
Been there, got the t-shirt and learned my lesson 4 years ago. I used to post Bob Dylan videos and he sent the Web Sheriff after me. It dawned on me: why was I working my butt off to post videos for Bob Dylan, who was making all the money, and it was pissing him off. Eureka. I quit and started writing my own songs.
The biggest surprise was Fox Media getting my account suspended for posting public domain news stories from NASA just because I was ahead of them reporting the news. Fox claimed it was their copyrighted video. Big media plays dirty don’t they?
Anyway, enjoy the show.
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