Gadgetory

this is an important video it's an important topic for YouTube and those of us who live off of YouTube so the verge recently filed a copyright claim against Pitt with Kyle which turned into a strike temporarily it also filed one against review tech USA and presumably other youtubers for their parodies of the Verge's a four month old video on how to build a gaming PC and most of us know how that went at this point it would did not go over well the video was very bad if you missed out on that so this video it had its commons disabled before being ultimately removed from the site it has been gone from the site from several months now we've all pretty much forgotten about this thing but it's a big aggression coming out of nowhere from a professional highly respected news organization such as the verge hey youtube it's me Nilay Patel editor-in-chief of the verge we have a big team of tech reporters with a deep understanding of tech and how it affects the world jump I actually jump in I can punch and I'm just knocking buildings over is sheer stupidity there's just no content but they find a way to remind everybody that they exist and let's sign back there that's another example of it this is so depressing we believe and YouTube does too evidently that Kyle's video constituted fair use specifically parody or satire seen as that's what it was and YouTube did side with Kyle eventually although when we started working on this it had been undecided at that point and YouTube reinstated his video it also presented concerns to the verge parent company Vox media over potentially illegitimate claims filed in this instance and media organizations have used the DMCA it to get back at each other for criticisms in the past it's actually that's what I just said that's a quote from the verge they wrote it in 2015 referencing the Sunday Times and a DMCA notice that was filed by it and then the verge went on to further states quote it set off the Streisand effect at most and will probably go no further the irony is tangible here before that this video is brought to you by us and the new gamers Nexus medium mod matte this is a 32 inch by 16 inch anti-static PC building service meant to protect your desk and your components while building systems deleting CPUs modern GPUs or working with liquid cooling components the GPO teardown diagram shows common placement of MOSFETs and doctors capacitors bioships shunt resistors and more and is accompanied by PCIe wiring diagrams and screw grids for your convenience grab your GN medium mod mat GBA teardown edition on store doc gamers nexus dotnet or click the link below we see these actions by Vox media as an egregious abuse of its position and power in the market although the verge has a 30% reduction year-over-year in traffic volume which is a sort of staggering loss in the amount of visitors its website is receiving it is still unarguably a massive website and this isn't just YouTube drama here it's an important Keystone weakness in YouTube's copyright claim system and it's one that has affected us in the past we have always successfully battled these claims when they're filed because they are in every instance that we've battled thus far invalid and that's because well really for the most part almost anyone can file one and although it has gotten better recently you didn't always have to be in any sort of legitimate positioning to make that filing so you can sort of temporarily withhold the advertising revenue from those who return those content creators by filing such a claim in this instance though it wasn't really that type of claim it was a takedown the video was gone and Kyle had to go through YouTube to get it reinstated so this is a wide-reaching thing these are issues that we deal with or at least think about on a daily basis across all the creators in the community so even if the claims are illegitimate or short-lived and resolved they are still problematic it takes time from us it takes money sometimes the fights depending on how fiercely the other side wants to keep that claim in place and this could be leveraged by manufacturers in much the same way that the verge is attempting to leverage it to control damage that well really was just a parody of its own missteps from form ago and to that end you know a manufacturer could try to file a similar type of copyright claim in fact game developers and publishers have done this in the past we've had those as well for negative or critical reviews or reviews which they believe show their game in a light that is undesirable so it is not a far leap to suggest that a component manufacturer could attempts to follow the same path if it's so desired and we're clueless enough and in an intensive pollak state to do so so this is something that the verge even knows it's well aware of this the verge and its staff presumably are self-aware to some extent and one of the 2017 articles that the verge published referred to this specific type of use the one that they're doing now of copyright claims on YouTube as a quote weaponization of copyright let's level here all media organizations make mistakes the world moves too fast we published too much content it happens and we make mistakes I mean just recently we published a video where we swapped firestrike GT 1 GT 2 footage and the content now the thing is how do you deal with those mistakes Publishing a correction is difficult with YouTube but can certainly be done we have used Twitter as a source for example and comments and things like that and retracting content is of course another option if it is severe enough to require a retraction in the case of the Verge's PC building video it determined eventually that the the inaccuracies in the content were severe enough to retract the video or in the very least the response and the reputation damage were severe enough to retract the video so what matters is how do you deal with those mistakes when you make them and this is again something that all of us have to know how to deal with even outside of media of course but especially in media because it does sort of propagate in a way that is difficult to to fix so once that information gets out there if it's wrong so on the verge there is a statement on the website there are written guidelines by the verge by Vox media for what to do when there is some sort of incorrect information published and that guideline states quote Vox media makes every effort for content to be completely accurate upon publication if a correction is required however we are transparent and will update a story if new information either adds to or corrects an aspect of the original story we will issue corrections for a factual error or if a typo in the copy could cause audiences to misunderstand the story in this instance the verge disabled its YouTube comments it took down into their own video and updated its article with a sort of weak defense of the content and brushed a bunch of things under the rug so this is the very opposite of what we would consider to be I don't know transparent has the verge and its guidelines do suggest it tries to be it's not quite transparent to other than well I guess transparent and so far as transparent in its efforts to try and hide the accidents of the past and prevent further embarrassment to itself but rather than follow its own written guideline what happened here's Vox media made and the verge every single bad play in the playbook that they could make ensuring that nobody will ever forget this video I mean we have references to it on one of our disappointments sure on the 2018 disappointment built shirt for instance we it's it's there forever so if you have one you've got a piece in history maybe they'll send you a copyright claim in our research on illegitimate claims here because the verge is sort of resurfacing this content now in our research on illegitimate claims which even YouTube questioned in its response to Vox media we found a 20-17 article that states the following of some of fire watches own copyright claims made on YouTube quote if the studio knew it was fair use it could even be punished for filing a false report the source of that article was the verge by the way you might have guessed by now the company also wrote an article in 2016 that was entitled quote a fine mess how not to assert your copyright in the YouTube age where and it encouraged the fine brothers for releasing illegitimate Content ID claims on YouTube as a means to quote the evil from their public image and start afresh in that same piece The Verge wrote that the fine brothers overreach of trademark and copyright protectionism could direct quote here have led to a real suppression of creativity on YouTube and also set a horrible precedent for any related genres of user-generated videos so this is this is the verge these are quotes from them we looked up about 10 years of their articles and they made a lot of ad money from us to you because I didn't disable their ad so you're welcome to bridge but we worked up a lot of their articles here this is a consistent theme The Verge and its authors do regularly make these statements about how this type of abuse of copyright is a bad thing I'm paraphrasing there but you get the idea I mean I just read you a quote a second ago so pretty clear what what that author of the verge thought anyway so it does seem that the verge knew the precedent that its actions could set specifically when speaking of the fine brothers and previously of other content so this is an abuse of the same system to file illegitimate claims as the verge was potentially while actually was directly criticizing in that previous article and the verge reinforces itself to and it's 2016 reports the verge no surprise noted that Google had been inundated with over 75 million copyright takedowns in February of 2016 alone many of these were legitimate to be completely fair to the content however as the author wrote quotes the ballooning number of requests shows that copyright holders are still very eager to leverage the DMCA at every opportunity and this was also speaking of music at the time movies things like that but did briefly mention the the other type of request here that we're discussing today so the trouble is that there are functionally no repercussions for a company which follows the actions that Vox media did today it is a company trying to bully content creators into removal of their content this is already something we deal with where companies try to force us to modify our content we of course do not stand for that but it is something that happens behind closed doors and certainly some content you've seen somewhere has been at least partially influenced or modified at the request of a company taking down a video can remove it entirely from a site in the worst case actually in a worst case than that the content creator receives a copyright strike as Kyle briefly did you get a couple of those about three before you are functionally banned from the platform and eliminated with your means of making a living gone in the blink of an eye and this is a system which is still somewhat automated there was manual oversight in the case of Kyle's issue where he did bring it to YouTube's attention but this is a it's it's a it's a serious concern I mean just just think about going to sleep every night with the realization that you could wake up and you've got copyright strikes that have shut down your channel until you can get it resolved and in the worst case you might not be able to get it resolved you can reference the channel I hate everything where his channel was effectively gone overnight although it was eventually I believe resolved but that didn't really help things for the prolonged period of time at which it was gone along with all income so this is it's a problem and really what we're looking at here is I mean there was let's look at this there's a pivotal case in 2015 on fair use which is the issue we're talking about today the judge took the side of fair use and wrote to that quote fair use is not just excused by the law it is wholly authorized by the law this is the famous dancing baby case if you're familiar with that from a couple years ago so in its analysis of this decision The Verge wrote in 2015 the following quote the decision chips away at the perception that any use of copyrighted material is probably illegal setting a higher bar for the copyright holders and further The Verge wrote that quote in order to file a takedown notice copyright holders must have a good faith belief that someone is using their work illegally but because the bar for getting content removed is fairly low and there are rarely repercussions for filing obviously incorrect from Planes this system is open to abuse so the verge won't have any meaningful representations YouTube will likely not act against the verge as we're aware a YouTube does not in any common case take away the powers of these copyright holders which is all of us really but it to our knowledge YouTube doesn't take away those powers to file those copyright claims and maybe in a mid step this instance YouTube could have some sort of dulling of those powers I mean if a company like in this instance Fox media - our belief is abusing the ability to file copyright claims which lead to strikes and it does so repeatedly and has a history of doing so and has a history of losing when YouTube ultimately reviews the issue and reverses the removal of the video then perhaps YouTube could at least consider making those filing of the copyright complaints not instantly disabled the video just maybe pitch it to the creator first let them respond because I'm 48 hours and then remove the video if the company that has filed the claim has a history of abusing the system short of just completely taking away the powers although that does seem a bit extreme because there are valid uses there - even if they abused it normally so youtube's probably not going to act against the verge in any way here we'll see of course this is opinion this whole content piece is to be viewed as opinion or satire in some instances and these quotes of the content from the verge are not the heart of the content they are quotes which have been attributed and if you would like links to them we can provide some of those as well do that below I suppose so if you're watching The Verge and Vox media hello it's fair use so I deal with it but otherwise this is you know it's it's something that concerned us and to be real here the verge for all of the silliness in that video really it did not deserve an eternity of being criticized for that video we kind of all got it out of our systems in the first couple of weeks there and everyone moved on there's the occasional reference to tweezers instead of zip ties but at this point they're so far removed from that reference that it's just kind of a funny joke in the community and now the Streisand effect as the verge so so pointedly highlighted is in full effect because we are all reminded of this content once again and it's for the wrong reasons it's out of this weird you just sort of feel bad for Vox media it's the company or whoever is over there controlling this is so embarrassed of this content that it waited several months someone over there stood over this content and how it's embarrassing them or how they perceive it's embarrassing them for four months before acting on anything hoping that probably no one would notice the opposite in fact is true we never made a video entirely dedicated to the verge PC when it first happened and here we are now talking about the actually serious legal issues that are being brought to the forefront because of the follow-on effect of the Vox media trying to remove Kyle's content and if you take USA's content and who knows who else because they thought it made them look stupid and the verge you alone we're responsible for looking stupid is sheer stupidity you can't really blame the other guys for pulling bits and pieces of the video showing it and then making fun of it commentating on it through satire through whatever shows like well comedy shows that make fun of other networks of other programs of movies of books of TV they wouldn't exist if they had the the same sort of issue we're dealing with here on YouTube because they're protected under fair use as we are on YouTube now because of that 2015 ruling so anyway it's you know it's it's a bit different we don't want this to appear like some sort of YouTube drama video of any kind why I didn't really go too hard with knocking the Virgin this one instead using their own quotes to highlight the inanity of it all because I think honestly the verge through its points and counterpoint here that we've laid out on its behalf does a good job of telling the story and I don't think we need to count with a whole lot more so anyway hopefully hopefully this brought some attention of the matter to you it is I believe resolved Kyle seems to be in fine shape now it looks like YouTube has heard his side of it and heard the the viewership on Twitter so we thank you for your support of the community of course this affected Kyle directly but it affects all of us indirectly it is a a concern of all of ours that you can receive this type of action illegitimately from companies that just don't like you and it can shut things down or in the very least can remove and censor content for the period of time in which the content is relevant you might not get it back up in time for people to care anymore it can just disappear so that's that's ultimately concerned and I don't think this is uh this is the last you'll hear about this type of issue so subscribe for more as always we'll have some actually good content like benchmark you know coming up soon I apologize if this is not the type of content you like from us I don't particularly like making it but I do find it very important and this is my livelihood this is my team's livelihood we deeply care about what happens on YouTube as a platform we deeply care about the politics of YouTube as a platform and we deeply care about the legal matters of YouTube and how it affects our peers in the space because it will to affect us at a later date so this is greatly important to us and I know it's not benchmark content but I appreciate you hearing me out because you know I pay people based on YouTube I pay myself based on YouTube and we are we can't do this without YouTube as a platform but to also live in sort of a fear of what could happen if the systems of YouTube are abused and leveraged against you in a way that you can't respond quickly enough that's obviously concerning so anyway that's for now let's go back to the real content thanks for watching you can support us through the normal means patreon.com slash gamers an access code subscribe to kyle or tweet at them or something and give them some kind words and I'll see you all next time a Swiss Army knife and it hopefully has ever since Reviver in it hopefully has it's true Vipers in it