YouTube Takes You to Copyright School, New Zealand MP Should Attend

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 18 Apr 2011

Representatives of the Google-owned video sharing site YouTube announced that in line with the video-sharing site’s commitment to protecting original creative works, a new tutorial on copyright has been released (check it out here) and the copyright help center has been redesigned (check it out here).

YouTube also announced that if it receives a copyright notification for one of your videos, it will take you to school – copyright school that is. You will have to attend YouTube Copyright School and you will have to pay attention because there will be a test. Test that you will have to pass if you want to be able to upload videos to YouTube again.

“It’s ultimately your responsibility to know whether you possess the rights for a particular piece of content before uploading it to YouTube. If you're at all uncertain of your rights or whether a particular use of content is legal under your local laws, you should contact a qualified copyright attorney. Of course, the easiest way to avoid any potential issues is to create totally original content -- perhaps by making the most of the creative tools available on the site,” commented Sr. Strategist at YouTube, Justin Green.

In related news, the one who should attend copyright school is New Zealand MP Melissa Lee. The New Zealand government passed a three-strikes law that would have people kicked off the web for 6 months and even fined if they are suspected of sharing copyright material online.

The funny thing is that Melissa Lee spoke out in support for the three-strikes bill that makes here an infringer as well. You see, just hours after giving a speech in support of the bill, (view it on YouTube here) she tweeted the following:
“Ok. Shower… Reading… And then bed! Listening to a compilation a friend did for me of K Pop. Fab. Thanks Jay.”

The bill that she supported says that making a compilation and sharing it with others represents copyright infringement. When called out on copyright infringement, Lee argued that her friend legally downloaded the songs and paid for the songs on the compilation. So based on that line of reasoning, if someone legally buys an album and shares it via torrent sites, that’s not copyright infringement?

The thing is that according to the bill that Lee supported, the recipient of a compilation made from legally purchased songs is still guilty of copyright infringement. The bill that she supported says that people can’t share a legally bought MP3 with someone, unless they share the entire device it is bought on. But then she argues that it’s okay to share a compilation with others as long as the music has been legally bought. Just goes to show you legislators are clueless about what they’re doing.


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