Sesame Street Copyright Strike

[Drtooth]

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.

The fact that people actually think that's going to deter copyright hunters is pathetic. They don't care. They just don't. The of course there are the saintly companies that, rather than blocking, banning, and being complete jerks about the whole thing give a special content claim that keeps the video up, but puts an advertisement next to it, giving the copyright holders revenue. We need more fresh thinking like that, and less "If you want to watch this so badly, go to our own klunky site that has 3 almost full episodes. Or buy the non existent DVD's.

The copyright thing is murky, and no doubt someone will take the company's side. Even though Viacom stole internet videos for crappy shows about internet videos and recursively reclaimed those original videos as their own (so much for the old chestnut of "WAAAA! You're stealing from us.") They're rules they don't have to play by, but curse your eternal soul into blistering flames if you want to watch something rare and impossible to find anywhere else physically or otherwise.

 

[BuddyBoy600alt]

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:



...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.

Yeah, And we did lose Bigpurplemuppet99. I think it is not a very good idea to post full episodes of Sesame Street.

 

[minor muppetz]

Has Sesame Workshop been taking down full episodes that are not available on DVD or iTunes? Or is it just the ones that can be purchased legally?

Buck-Beaver mentioned that it could be the current distribution deal. But then shouldn't the copyright claim be by Warner as opposed to Sesame Workshop (unless Warner asked Sesame Workshop to take them down so Warner doesn't look like the bad guy....)?

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Well, the New Mexico episodes have been taken down and to my knowledge their not available anywhere else.

 

[Rugratskid]

But then shouldn't the copyright claim be by Warner as opposed to Sesame Workshop (unless Warner asked Sesame Workshop to take them down so Warner doesn't look like the bad guy....)?

I don't believe it's Warner. They own the current rights to Animaniacs, but Episodes AND Segments have been posted on Youtube since it opened and they are still up.

 

[minor muppetz]

I don't believe it's Warner. They own the current rights to Animaniacs, but Episodes AND Segments have been posted on Youtube since it opened and they are still up.

I know that a lot of Warner properties are on YouTube. In fact I thought I've heard about Warner taking some things down, yet there's still a lot of Looney Tunes, Anamaniacs, Tiny Toons, Taz-Mania, and other WB properties online.

 

[Rugratskid]

When did you hear about it? If it was over 5 or 6 months ago it was probably a rumor.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Buck-Beaver mentioned that it could be the current distribution deal. But then shouldn't the copyright claim be by Warner as opposed to Sesame Workshop (unless Warner asked Sesame Workshop to take them down so Warner doesn't look like the bad guy....)?

Sesame Workshop is the content owner, so they are the only ones who can legally make a takedown request.

I have no first hand knowledge of the situation, but generally speaking companies tend to get more aggressive about takedowns and piracy when it causes direct conflict with their business model.

For example, apparently for a long time WWE was very tolerant of fans uploading full episodes of their TV shows (which they probably saw as free promotion/advertising) but not their Pay-Per-View shows, because someone watching a PPV show on YouTube isn't going to pay to watch the event. However, when WWE signed a deal to offer their TV shows on Hulu they almost immediately began cracking down on fans uploading full episodes on YouTube. This is pretty understandable, Hulu isn't going to pay WWE a lot of money for the rights to the shows that anyone can just upload it to YouTube.

Likewise, if Sesame Workshop is depending on revenue from DVD sales of direct-to-video shows and streaming full episodes on services like Netflix, they have to protect that content otherwise distributors like Warner and Netflix aren't going to pay money for "exclusive" distribution rights because they aren't exclusive if anyone is allowed to upload the same content on YouTube.

We have to remember that Sesame Street costs tens of millions of dollars to make every year and Sesame Workshop is dependent mostly on revenue from merchandising and licensing to keep producing it, so I would imagine that this sort of thing is a necessary evil. I know most people sharing Sesame content online are doing it out of love for Sesame Street, but sadly there are a lot of economics involved in these sorts of things.

 

[D'Snowth]

Sesame Workshop is the content owner, so they are the only ones who can legally make a takedown request.

That isn't always the case, though. I mean, as far as Sesame examples go, we know that Lionsgate has taken down Sesame content simply because it was featured on DVDs they were responsible for distributing. As a matter of fact, half of the time, copyright takedowns are the result of different companies claiming copyright when they only distributed the content in one form or another, whether it was on home entertainment, or on TV in syndication/reruns... like before Bagdasarian Productions themselves started cracking down on Chipmunk content a few years ago, beforehand, Warner Bros. were removing episodes of the 80s-90s cartoon series because they once distributed reruns of it.

Some cases are weird though, like one person I know has been posting clips from WHO'S LINE IS IT ANYWAY?, which IS owned by Warner, and has been posting clips since 2006, and to my knowledge, still posts some up till now, and yet, they've NEVER been taken down, though ironically, Warner has taken down a number of fan-generated videos, so go figure.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Well, you're right, copyright holders and their agents are allowed to make takedown requests, so presumably a distributor ordering Sesame content taken down is acting as an agent of Sesame workshop.

The whole take down process is really screwed up.

There are thousands of examples of companies ordering take downs of content they do not actually hold the copyright to. In a lot of cases, the process is automated and content is flagged without a human ever seeing it, which is why you have erratic enforcement and takedown requests on perfectly legitimate videos.

To be fair to YouTube, they are actually required by law to comply with takedown requests and don't have much choice, but Google also publishes reports on companies that have ordered false takedowns to try and hold them accountable.