NBC, Youtube, and Zhongnanhai
- By Cam MacMurchy
- Published September 5, 2008
- News
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Rating:
BEIJING - I admit, it crossed my mind when I uploaded it: a video showing the families of the Canadian Men's 8 rowing team as they crossed the finish line to win gold at the Beijing Olympics. I was fortunate enough to be in the stands, and got a close up expression of the families at the precise moment their sons, nephews, and even grandsons won gold. The video was quite moving.
I uploaded it to Youtube and wrote a post about the video, titled "What It Means to Win Gold". The video has been viewed over 3,000 times on Youtube, and has been promoted on radio stations in Canada. It was a simple, distorted, amateur video shot on a cheap Olympus camera.
I'd recommend watching it to get a feel for what it's like for families at the games -- but unfortunately it has been removed from the Youtube site. I received this letter today from the Google-run company:
Dear zhongnanhaiblog,
NBC Universal (Sports) has claimed some or all visual content in your video Men's Rowing Eight -- In the Stands. This claim was made as part of the YouTube Content Identification program.
Your video is no longer available because NBC Universal (Sports) has chosen to block it.
Claim Details:
| Copyright owner: | NBC Universal (Sports) |
| Content claimed: | Some or all of the visual content |
| Policy: |
Block this content. Applies to these locations: Everywhere |
NBC Universal (Sports) claimed this content as a part of the YouTube Content Identification program. YouTube allows partners to review YouTube videos for content to which they own the rights. Partners may use our automated video / audio matching system to identify their content, or they may manually review videos.
For more information about this claim, visit the Video ID Matches section of your YouTube account.
Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the suspension of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to avoid future strikes against your account, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide. If you believe that this claim was made in error, or that you are otherwise authorized to use the content at issue, you may file a counter notice. For more information on this process, please see: How do I file a counter notice?
Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.
Sincerely,
The YouTube Content Identification Team
While I know NBC has exclusive rights, this leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth. Surely a video showing an ebullient family is harmless, and isn't cutting into NBC's Olympic profits. It's a Canadian celebration, after all.
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4 Responses to "NBC, Youtube, and Zhongnanhai" 
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said this on 06 Sep 2008 9:14:25 AM PST
And, of course, the Olympics is a sports event, not a commercial one. Right ?
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said this on 06 Sep 2008 2:10:17 PM PST
If you still have the video just repost it again. The problem may have been that it was a better report on the race than NBC could done themselves. If it wasn't for the Olympics and sports in general....well maybe the Leno show as well NBC would be out of business. They have the worst news and cable news. Oberman and Matthews are the worst of the bunch.
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said this on 06 Sep 2008 7:20:29 PM PST
The kindest thing I can say about them is that collectively they're idiots. They are so obsessed with letter-of-the-law enforcement of their rights that they've never thought in any meaningful way about whether this kind of public posting is useful to them or not. Virtually all of it is. But from a legal and technical standpoint it's simply easier, even if ultimately destructive, to err on the side of obliterating anything that might even remotely constitute infringement.
This is not like music piracy, which arguably imposes an immediate and direct cost on the rights holder. But working that out that a degree of subtlety, analytical nuance and even risk-taking that makes mainstream media legal departments piss lemon juice. Post it again, on another video sharing site. Perhaps even a Chinese one. |
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said this on 04 Nov 2008 9:57:47 AM PST
Excellent account, and one that mirrors something that just happened to me. I had posted last weekend two rather simple amateur videos from a big rugby match here in Hong Kong between New Zealand and Australia. One was a minute-long clip of the NZ team performing the haka (Maori war dance) prior to the actual match; the second clip was a seven-minute highlight clip I was lucky enough to cobble together and that wasn't bad for an amateur. They got about 950 and 1,300 hits, respectively, in a 36-hour period before YouTube pulled them at the behest of an outfit called MediaZone.com. I assume they have rights to rugby broadcasts some places, including that match. But a sporting event is NOT a concert, and there was no commercial value to my video, and I have doubts about media organizations claiming they own the content of sporting events under 512(f). Your example is even better, as it focused on the news value of the reaction to winning the medal, and was not even footage of the actual event. I think you would have a good case, but probably couldn't afford the kind of expensive lawyers NBC has on staff....Sad tale. This kind of stuff really is chilling to free expression, isn't it?
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