I was wondering why the sudden rash of video channels going dark over the last few months when I saw that the Nostalgia Critic also had his channel disrupted over questionable DCMA claims and YouTube strikes.
This whole thing is both a bit interesting and a bit confusing as well. On the one hand, I can see why Youtube would want to er on the side of caution. After all they exist to make money and if they're under threat of getting sued left and right, then being overly cautious like they seem to be doing seems to be the easiest route to take. On the other hand though, they're a hosting service. They rely on their content creators to be bringing that money in. If their DMCA policies do nothing but alienate their users and make life unnecessarily difficult for them, then the policy as a business practice really strikes me as questionable at best. If you alienate your users to the point where they give up and go somewhere else, what're you gonna do? I know that currently, with the some small exceptions here and there, Youtube is pretty much the only game in town. They're the only ones with the server muscle to handle the sheer number of not only videos, but viewership. That said though, data is getting cheaper every year. It's not too hard to imagine smaller niche websites popping up here and there nipping at the heels of Youtube. All it takes is one or two big mistakes at the wrong time (and some entrepreneurial people taking advantage of the opportunity) and they could lose a shit ton of market share in a relatively short period of time. As for fair use in general, six months ago I didn't think about it much one way or another. I mean, I have vague understandings of it and of course I support the concept, but beyond that I didn't think much of it. I'm thinking of starting up my own blog though, something that focuses both on antiques and cars and maybe just other general shit. As a risk averse individual, I would go above and beyond sticking well within the confines of fair use. The problem is fighting these kinds of things can both be time consuming and expensive. I don't have a whole excess of time or money. If faced with a takedown letter for posting pictures of an old Ansco Rediflex, I wouldn't even know where to begin. Ansco is a dead company. The cameras are all out of patent. The Rediflex trademark is probably no longer in use anymore. How would I even go about beginning to verify how legit the letter is, let alone fight it? I don't think I could. So I'd take down the article and the pictures, wasting a few good afternoons of work. If I did that for every take down notice that came my way, suddenly I don't think a blog would be worth my time.