YouTube Drops Bomb, Renders Account 'Permanently Disabled'

Well, it finally happened. After being warned by the YouTube brownshirts that I had better cease uploading copyrighted material or face account deletion, they made good on their threat. Those of you who read this blog know that I would occasionally post entire scenes from mainstream films, then comment on what I felt made them great. First my clip from The Truman Show got bumped. Then it was Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Finally, my bit from October Sky sent management over the edge and they suspended my entire account.

What bugs me about this whole process is how everyone who "offends" gets lumped into the same category. If anyone is falling into "fair use", it's me. I don't alter the clips in any way, showing them in their entirety for the purpose of comment and criticism. The law is supposed to allow me to do that. Unfortunately, I'd have to go to court to prove it, and in this case, that would just be a waste of time and money. This blog did get traffic from those clips (which will be missed), but it ain't worth a court battle.

I have already setup another account, but I will no longer be putting anything remotely copyrighted in it. I will probably continue to post Scene Gems (I think they are valuable, and they get me thinking as well), but will host them somewhere else, like dailymotion. When posting my original stuff, I'll still go with The Tube. You can't ignore the potential millions of eyeballs that site can bring you. That would just be bad business.

I do wish that the folks at Google would review "offenses" on a case-by-case basis, and not just treat everyone with the same swift justice. I know they are just covering their butts and avoiding a lawsuit from the studios, but it's too bad that copyright law can't be used by the little guy the way it was intended. And I'm not the only one who thinks so.