Hm, canât say Iâve heard about Hangouts on Air before now. Iâd be more understanding if it was some fly-by-night tech startup, but as an official Google service it strikes me as a grave oversight that they donât allow quick and easy sectioning of lengthy live streams â especially if, as some have suggested, some merry prankster could show up with copyrighted music and get the whole thing muted,
I so not familiar with this space, but - if you mark the video as private, can you get the audio back? (*) Then you could pull back a copy and edit as necessary.
(* This is based on the thought that YT doesnât destroy the audio, but simply blocks it when flagged.)
FYI âŚ
Unlike most other solutions, this one comes from YouTube and claims to be able to drop out the songs without taking out the entire audio.
Thanks, chris0. I did try both of those, without success. The video remains muted even if marked as private, and the âAudioâ option just doesnât show up on my Edit menu. Maybe itâs because this feature is in beta and we are in Canada. (Where, ironically, lawyer Michael Geist has confirmed that our broadcast was legal. But on the internet, everyone is expected to follow American law.)
There are many references to a dispute mechanism, many of them referencing times where there was a good faith belief that something would not be infringing. You can likely find those - I didnât mention them in part because they are all several years old. But that might be another route to try.
Either way, your example is, unfortunately, a reminder to ânever keep your only copy in someone elseâs spaceâ, which is closely related to âalways have an offline copy of your websiteâ. No matter what you think will happen, it can always be worse.
Hmm - the Michael Geist reference makes me think. Can you limit the regional view of your video to just Canada? If it is not available in the U.S., then it might be the case that can find a little more flexibility.
However you proceed, I assume the goal is to try and get this available to you (doesnât even have to be everyone) just long enough to get a copy offline, so that you can do segmentation and audio cleanup.
Youtube can do whatever they want. If they go beyond what the DMCA seemingly requires, they do it because itâs good for their business model (which probably involves not getting sued and creating ways to allow even copyrighted works to stay available if the copyright holder elects to easily monetize it). I mean, boinboingâs TOS includes the following:
THIS IS OUR HOUSE
We may, in our sole discretion and without any forewarning, suspend or terminate your account for violating these Terms, or for any other reason we choose. We can remove your User Content without any forewarning, for any reason we choose.
Youtubeâs removal policies are less arbitrary, but theyâre the bad guys.
Did you want people in the US to be able to see your video? Is there any reason a US company shouldnât follow US law?
Iâm not sure why even the most assiduous DJ for a Canadian science symposium would obtain the rights to a worldwide public performance, which a youtube video essentially is.
Do you really believe that anyone with any political clout whatsoever would allow this to happen? Theyâre in the same club as âbig musicâ.
I had the exact same experience with YT⌠Years ago, I put together a bunch of old 8mm family footage reels; I invited my young son to come and view the movie; I had a tape recorder running to get his immediate reactions to the movie, which were great, and very funny.
Unfortunately, there was a radio playing quietly in the background the entire time; it was so soft you could barely hear it.
Anyway, 20 years later, I decided to put the footage with his audio track up on YT for the family. A week later I got a take-down notice from YT because of the almost inaudible radio audio in the background. We were devastatedâŚI felt it was so unfair and a totally stupid reaction on their part.
So I wonât be using YT again, ever, for anything.
This pretty much sums up my issue with the current DMCA bullshit. Everyone is treated like criminals and you have to prove your innocence when in the court of law itâs the opposite (or at least on paper is how it should work). Copyright law needs to impose that all claims have to be verified before taking action. Thereâs plenty of cases of people abusing it to take down videos that are not infringing, and there are also cases of youtube robots taking down videos for no discernable reason.
@chris0 @bwv812 It would be nice if people in the US could see our video, but our primary audience is Canadian. I would be willing to limit the regional view to just Canada if that would get our audio back, but I donât think thatâs an option. I am aware of the dispute resolution process and will try that, but it looks like that will take at least a month.
I understand, of course, that YouTube needs to follow American law and avoid being sued. But we do have this problem with the international nature of the internet that makes it is pretty much impossible for anyone to grow a Canadian alternative to YouTube. The size of the American market gives American companies monopoly power. I can hope that raising attention to what just happened to us might encourage interest in Canadian services out of fear of being subjected to draconian American law.
For maximum effect, you should probably play any music owned by Disney (anything from Song of the South would be particularly amusing).
Quite frankly, this doesnât make any sense. If the internet is international in nature, how does being American give anyone monopoly power? If anything, having to comply with US copyright law should be a major impedimentâthereâs a reason that file-sharing sites are not typically American. (Of course, if a service is blocked in the US that would also be a problem, but this doesnât put international companies at any disadvantage).
So, basically, youtube sucks.
Our audio has been restored! Thank you to all who applied pressure, thank you to Michael Geist for providing the wording of our legal argument, and thank you to YouTube for being reasonable.
Download that shit and back it up
Being reasonable wouldâve been to provide a warning about the audio and work something out, rather than mute the video in the first place and cause all the frustration and BS. But i guess if you jump through enough hoops like a good dog, Youtube will deem people worthy of being listened to.
âReasonableâ is relative. In ideal world, youâd be right. (And Iâd prefer it that way.) In the current setup, I think we have to be happy with what we got (though pushing for better is doubtless a good idea too).
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