YouTube Policy Redo, User Gets Threatened

 
By Sherri October 24, 2006



As copyright holders get more rabid about having their materials removed from YouTube, the folks behind the company have been busy rewriting policies and making sure to explain in plain English what is acceptable and what isn't.

The YouTube SQUAD recently posted a letter to users explaining how it works and has also updated its Community Guidelines to clearly describe what can be posted and what cannot.

"Our little department administers all of the community areas of the site, from rejecting porn, to responding to copyright notices, support email and much, much more! Our number one job is to keep the site safe, so that it can continue to exist. ... Lately the volume of videos to review has taken away from other things, like responding to support messages. This means that a lot of you haven't gotten the attention you deserve."

The volume of videos to review very likely has a whole lot to do with the number of copyright complaints the site is receiving as copyright holders clamp down on the rights of their property.

A case in point is the Premier League's recent action to have YouTube yank a video while also threatening the web site that posted the video in the first place.

YouTube couldn't be more clear in its guidelines if it tried, but that doesn't mean users will pay heed. "Respect copyright. Only upload videos that you made or that you have obtained the rights to use. This means don't upload videos you didn't make, or use content in your videos that someone else owns the copyright to, such as music tracks, snippets of copyrighted programs, or videos made by other users, without their permission."

Perhaps the British issue will wake a few people up, but it's likely the folks at YouTube will find themselves quite busy for some time to come.

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