Copyright Infringement

For the first time in my life, though I'm not sure why that timetable is a surprise to me, I have apparently been accused of copyright infringement. Posted below is a YouTube/Paramount Studios email to me.


"This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Paramount Pictures Corporation claiming that this material is infringing:

Anchorman Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K7eMSu5mic

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion 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 elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Center to access the instructions.

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,
YouTube, Inc."



In one of the previous posts on this blog, I made a link to a video on YouTube that was a parody of Anchorman. It was a trailer I created for a graduate class, and was displayed on the web. I am simultaneously proud and pissed off at its removal.

The trailer was created under both educational fair use, and fair use for parody. It was a non-profit creation, and was displayed on the web to illustrate educational achievement. But apparently Paramount Studios disagreed with me, and chose to force YouTube to remove my trailer.

It's a form of educational free speech, and a form of parody. Parody in that I made fun of the character of Ron Burgundy in the movie, and worked to illustrate him as a character of deep emotion while still inept at love -- which is similar to the way he was truly portrayed in the movie, but I did it in a different way.

So despite that my trailer was legally made, and posted under the auspices of legal use, Paramount had an issue with it. I feel ridiculously excited to fight this, and to see what Paramount thinks they can do to me. I'm not rich, I'm not a genius, and I'm not some superstar artist, but I'm willing to fight, even if it's minor. And this could be very fun.

Stay tuned.