If you´re a YouTube content producer, you have probably been confronted with YouTube´s restrictive copyright and content policies in the past:
1. If Youtube´s automatic software finds you are infringing audio or video copyrights they will usually mute or ban your video. Approximately every third brdBA$$$ upload is FALSELY accused of such infringement. Now, apart from filling out the protest form YouTube supplies – which will usually take weeks and months to be answered – there is a work-around: Before uploading, you pitch-shift the outlawed audio material by around two semi-tones and/or you distort the outlawed video if you´re also having problems with video copyright. Now, YouTube´s infringement software will probably leave you alone when you re-up your file. We had to try several settings before we got it right though, and settings seem to differ.
2. Second, if you upload material that contains anything too rude for these old puritans you don´t really have a chance against YouTube in terms of legally settling the issue – their terms and conditions are ambigious enough to allow just about anything. They won´t give you a reason WHY your video was banned and they won´t answer any emails to service@youtube.com. Ever. This has happened with two of our videos – one of which contained (comic strip style) nudeness, the other a drastic, but nevertheless legimate statement about war in Iraq.
In cases like these there are three strategies to protect your work.
Strategy 1: Upload your material to dozens of YouTube-accounts. When one account goes down, open another and re-up. Strategy 2: Upload your material with added censorship bars hiding the rude material from puritan eyes. This will also make a point, that Youtube is not the free community of creative exchange that it pretends to be. Strategy 3: Now, this is something that these kids from 4chan have tried. There was one dedicated day, Youtube Porn Day, where all users involved randomly uploaded videos containing – usually well hidden – obscenity, giving YouTube the hassle of finding inappropriate content among millions of videos. So this did make a disruptive statement about YouTube´s content policy and may be the only way for users to create public awareness about YouTube´s increasing harassment of users.
Join together with thousands of other users uploading “inappropriate” content on international Prudetube Day every 13th of every month until YouTube conforms to transparent and democratic standards of content control. But: Make sure you do not upload anything illegal.
Check out youtomb.com to see which videos are being banned THIS second…
