Youtube's current Copyright claim (DMCA) system is rife with abuse.

Youtube's current system is automated and as a result has the potential for abused by copyright holders (or just malicious people) who do not like Youtube content that may reflect badly on their products.

Specifically what are we talking about?

A DMCA copyright takedown (or the OCILLA) refers to when a copyright holder, for example Nintendo, requests from Youtube that a video be taken down as it infringes on their copyright. Something that they have a perfect right to do but, as commented above, is being abused in some cases.

Is there a short version?

The idea here is not to allow people to freely infringe on copyrights but to ensure that the current broken system cannot be used any more to block critical thoughts and expressions of free speech.

So what has sparked this petition arriving now?

TotalBiscuit aka The Cynical Brit, who is Youtube's number one Game Critic (with 1,284,412 subscribers currently) had a recent video taken offline by Youtube. Why you ask? Well here is a little information.

The game in question is "Day One: Garry's Incident" and TotalBiscuit requested a reviewer code explaining what he would be doing (a standard email letter he send out to 100's of games all the time) and also showing the kind of content. The resulting review (well more a first look) was very critical. So what was the reason given? well the official reason is "We protected our copyright because Total Biscuit has no right to make advertising revenues with our license." However there are many other videos who are monetising reviews or first impressions of their game but none were as popular or were the number one search result on Youtube for this game. Also the CEO has already given blanket permission to do exactly this.

Ok so this petition is not just about this incident, this incident has just sparked some outrage and a lot of coverage, some which you can see here:

http://kotaku.com/studio-accused-of-blocking-youtube-vid-over-criticism-1448796126

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2013/10/21/youtube-personality-totalbiscuit-claims-day-one-garrys-incident-dev-made-copyright-claim-#.UmXMRPmbPTg

http://www.reddit.com/r/Cynicalbrit/comments/1otlnh/wtf_is_day_one_garrys_incident_the_video_is_no/

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/67346-totalbiscuit-and-wild-games-studio-problem/

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128860-Day-One-Garrys-Incident-Devs-Accused-of-Censoring-Bad-Review

http://www.incgamers.com/2013/10/day-one-garrys-incident-angers-critics

Regarding TotalBiscuit, they have officially apologised (read that here) but actually this is not the first incident of this, actually its quite common and I will be posting up some Youtuber's videos (once I have their permission) views on this but to be honest you just simply have to google this issue to realise it is extremely prevalent The current system is not only automated but it is very heavily weighed in favour of the copyright holder and while you would want that, to be honest, not to this level, let me explain.

Currently almost anyone can execute a DMCA take down of a video for any reason (even false ones) and the video comes down automatically. That then can be fought by the Youtuber but as long as that person holds the Copyright they can just takedown stays if they want it to. There is no review of this from Youtube in any way shape or form. Why is this so bad? Because ANYONE can just claim copyright infringement on any vdieo they do not like an effectively stamp out any criticism of their property and this has a huge effect on free speech. Also due to Youtube's 3 strikes policy and lack of customer service response or interest in this automated system 100's of youtubers have had their accounts closed and are unable to do anything about this.

Personally I use Youtube a lot, I don't even have a TV any more and most of my entertainment and time watching "TV" is spent doing so on Youtube. If TotalBiscuit's content was suddenly to disappear from Youtube I would loose so much of what I watch. TotalBiscuit makes a good living from Youtube and his viewers, and so he should, and he is not alone, people like Nerd Cubed and Boogle2988 also make a living from this system and if their livelihood can be taken away in the blink of an eye that is just a crazy system.

Wild Games Studios is not the only ones, Sega went through an unexplained barrage of copyright infringement take-downs. I'll let you read more and make your own decission on this one:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-11-20-youtube-shining-force-3-content-suddenly-targeted-for-copyright-infringement

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/11/30/sega-targets-shining-force-videos-youtube#.UmXiePmbPTg

http://www.segadriven.com/2012/11/youtube-users-with-shining-force-iii-content-being-targeted-for-copyright-infringement/

http://spong.com/article/28477/Shining-Force-III-Videos-Suddenly-Removed-on-Copyright-Infringement-Claims

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2012/11/20/sega-removing-shining-force-iii-videos-from-youtube/



Nukem Dukem today (22-10-2013) posted this video regarding a malicious DMCA takedown of his youtube channel

http://www.dailymotion.com/nukemdukem#video=x16ajdm

More on Nukem Dukem as today (25-10-2013) he announced that his account had been restored thanks to some nice people at a network not his own and he posted this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdYxhHh-x58

Less than 2 hours later he is targeted again on community guidelines and his account is resuspended. This Youtuber and others are being targeted and this needs to stop.

What do I propose? Well I will update this with any great ideas, suggestions or tweeks you give me but:

1.-Firstly change the 3 strikes system to 3 strikes from different copyright infringements, ie ensure that the same person cannot take a channel in 5 mins. This would ensure that people who were a problem when it comes to Copyright issues would be dealt with but those who just have 3 videos on the same subject get a reprieve.

2.-Introduce a system where by if there is a DMCA takedown is fought by the Youtuber there would be some kind of review by Youtube

3.-Introduce a system where copyright holders get strikes against them where if they have used false claims or claims are over tuned too many times they loose the ability to conduct automatic take downs.

4.-Any Channel over a certain age without any strikes or with more than a certain number of subscribers automatically gets a human reviewer before the take-down comes into effect.

5.-Introduce some sort of penalty system for Youtubers and Copyright Holders who abuse these systems to ensure that the false claims are reduced.

The idea here is not to allow people to freely infringe on copyrights but to ensure that the current broken system cannot be used any more to block critical thoughts and expressions of free speech.