#622 Song To Study Superlatives, Shanghai Subway Kiss

For the first time, one of my videos was deleted by YouTube. I can see the video in the list and where it usually says "Live!" it says "Rejected (copyright infringement)".
I was very surprised to see this because I have great respect for copyright laws and I would never break the laws on purpose. I also respect the rules of this site and wouldn't break them on purpose.
The frustrating thing is that YouTube didn't send me an email to explain why they deleted it. (I guess they just don't have time, and they have so many users they don't see the need to look after them as much as smaller sites). Another site I use sometimes questions/rejects videos I upload (they have lawyers check every single video before they approve it), while I don't always agree with their decisions, at least they explain it so I can see where they are coming from. (Actually at first I did things like email the copyright owner so that I was 100% sure - and then they would agree ... but this just took up too much time that I don't have).
In this case, I can only guess that it was because I included about 20 seconds of a song. This is OK according to fair use ... but ... I reread (the musician)'s Wikipedia entry and discovered that he seems to interpret copyright law in his own special way. He might even think mentioning his name is copyright infringement?! Sigh ... Well, I've taken out the 20 seconds of the song and I'll see how it goes. If they also reject to talking about the lyrics, then I may just give up on this video. I want to spend my time making interesting and useful educational videos, not in legal fights.
I will continute to introduce songs to study (never his again though!) - luckily most musicians don't share his attitude :)

UPDATE:
I've just found an email from YouTube about this video. This is it:

メンバーのみんなへ:
このメールは、PRINCE / NPGさんから以下のマテリアルが権利を侵害しているとの第三者通報があったため、このマテリアルを削除またはアクセス不能にしたことをお知らせするものです。

#622 Prince - The Most Beautiful Girl In The World: http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=jJIppGXfo4g

注意: 著作権の侵害を繰り返し行うと、ご利用のアカウントとそのアカウントにアップロードされているすべての動画が削除される場合があります。 そのような事態を防ぐため、権利を保有していない動画を削除し、他者の著作権を侵害する動画をアップロードをしないでください。 YouTube の著作権ポリシーの詳細については、「著作権に関するヒント」をご覧ください。

異議申し立て通知を YouTube に送付する場合には、ヘルプ センターで手順を参照してください。

米国著作権法の第 512 条 (F) に基づき、手違いまたは誤認によりマテリアルまたは活動が削除あるいは無効にされたことなど故意に重要事項について事実と異なることを告げると、責任を問われる場合があり­ます。


YouTube, Inc.

(This message says that, according to PRINCE/NPG I have broken number 512 of American copyright law and if I do it again I might have my account deleted. It doesn't say specifically how I broke #512, so I'm still left guessing. I'm going to write to YT and see if I can find out.)


UPDATE: 29 October 2009 - the artist has just got blogger to delete the script.
Nuts ... but there's nothing I can do about it - I have no money, no time and no lawyers.
I reposted it with the artist's name replaced with X's.
http://thedailyenglishshow.blogspot.com/2008/01/622-song-to-study-superlative...


English script
http://thedailyenglishshow.blogspot.com/2008/01/show-622-friday-25-january.html

英文スクリプト＋日本語訳＋番組詳細
http://tdes.blog120.fc2.com/blog-entry-58.html

한국어
http://tdeskorean.blogspot.com/2009/01/show-622-1-25.html

Show 622 Friday 25 January
The Daily English Show
http://www.thedailyenglishshow.com/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Shanghai
• Subway
• Kiss
• 上海
• ESL
• EFL
• ELT

[mckoss]

Maybe you should include text in your comments stating the name of the artist/song-writer and the length of your snippet - that might make it easier for the Google screeners to see that you are complying with fair-use rules and not just do a blanket acceptance of a take-down notice from the copyright holder.

[thedailyenglishshow]

Thanks for the suggestion. I wonder if it would make any difference? I don't think a human checked my video, since they sent me a generic message in Japanese, when it's easy to see I'm an English speaker. Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is just a one off case, due to Prince's way of thinking. It would be useful to know how the process works though.

[Noah2112]

Robert Allen Zimmerman is Boby Dillon now.

[thatamericangirl]

He is very possessive about his music, I guess. I heard that a woman was sued because she put a video of her child dancing to a song of his. Obviously, her intent was to show off her toddler, not to infringe a copyright. She countersued, but I don't know what came of that.

[englishwob]

I thought at first that perhaps the 'kiss' video was too hot,not that some reclusive nut thinks that he is too big to be here,even for a couple of seconds.