Sesame Street Copyright Strike

[Rugratskid]

So, I uploaded Singing, Drawing, and More to YouTube, and I got a copyright strike today from it. Dancing, Music and Books is still up though. Does anyone know why SS is NOW removing these?

 

[Oscarfan]

Because it's a full video maybe?

 

[D'Snowth]

The million dollar question is WHY after all these years of Sesame Workshop being cool with people posting their content are they suddenly doing a heel face turn, and removing different videos on the grounds of copyright infringement?

 

[Drtooth]

They've only been doing that with full episodes and full video releases. It's clearly due to money they think they're losing. They're on a very thin budget as it is, and I'll sympathize with them on that. They'd rather sell episodes and DVDs and make up a fraction of that money. And that's how they should make money, considering they had to resort to reruns this year.

Personally, I'm more ticked that Schoolastic pulls the Word Girl episodes down. I really wanted to see someone upload Monkey Business because Captain Huggyface makes this priceless "WHAT THE *&&*^ DID YOU DO!?!" face I can't find anywhere to make a meme or avatar from.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

I don't know about making video downloads, but someone had mentioned that if you put a disclaimer saying that you don't own the characters would be helpful or maybe putting the video up in separate parts might do the trick as well. I notice quite a few SS videos I've seen on You Tube have parts 1 and part 2.

 

[Rugratskid]

I put a whole disclaimer and everything! I am actually downloading some SS episodes right now, before Sesame Workshop removes them all. It's funny because all the other EW segments I posted are still there! XD

 

[Rugratskid]

I I notice quite a few SS videos I've seen on You Tube have parts 1 and part 2.

That's what I did with Dancing, Music and Books and that is still up.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I don't know about making video downloads, but someone had mentioned that if you put a disclaimer saying that you don't own the characters would be helpful or maybe putting the video up in separate parts might do the trick as well. I notice quite a few SS videos I've seen on You Tube have parts 1 and part 2.

It's very possible that take downs of full length DVDs have something to do with the contract between the distributor and Sesame Workshop. Putting it up in parts - as I understand it anyway - just means it is less likely to be flagged by YouTube's automated content identification system. If the owner wants to go after it, they will.

It's important to remember that posting content you don't own is technically against the terms you agree to when you sign-up on YouTube.

In most cases, I believe YouTube tends to leave content in place if it is properly attributed so long as the copyright owner doesn't make an issue of it, but contrary to what a lot of YouTubers believe, disclaimers don't really mean anything. People often upload copyrighted content to YouTube with a disclaimer saying something like "no copyright infringement intended" but that does not change the fact that it is copyright infringement.

Likewise, people often post this on full-length episodes of TV shows:

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

...which sounds fantastic, except that posting all or (in most cases) even an extended portion of a TV show doesn't even come close to being fair use.

All in all, I think Sesame Workshop is pretty cool and progressive when it comes to online videos, both sharing them on their official channel and allowing fans to post their own.

 

[D'Snowth]

I don't know about making video downloads, but someone had mentioned that if you put a disclaimer saying that you don't own the characters would be helpful or maybe putting the video up in separate parts might do the trick as well. I notice quite a few SS videos I've seen on You Tube have parts 1 and part 2.

That doesn't always necessarily work, nor does is it a guarantee that what you post won't be taken down eventually. I've seen PLENTY of videos over the years where they have stressed in the descriptions that they don't own the rights to the content, that copyright infringement is not the intention, that the content is the property of whoever owns it, etc., and have still been taken down. Back in September, I posted a bunch of WORLD'S DUMBEST... clips on YT, and they were taken down by truTV in a matter of weeks, yet, there's TONS of other WD clips that have been up for YEARS that are left untouch, and most of them don't have these disclaimers either, so I don't get what they deal is (now I just post the clips through RapidShare so people can download them).

And fan-generated content that DOES genuinely fall under Fair Use isn't immune to removal either, I've seen many YouTube Poops taken down for various different reasons, like say Viacom removing a Poop because the clips used in it had the Nickelodeon logo on them, or FOX once remove one of my Poops because it was a M*A*S*H Poop, and they own the show.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

The problem with fair use is that it is an affirmative defense, which means that it is up to the person using the copyrighted content to prove it's not infringement. There is no "innocent until proven guilty".