07 September, 2008
How I got my YouTube Account back (after it was Suspended!)
On the 16th of August, 2008 YouTube suspended my account, lostinz, after three copyright infringement claims by World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc (WWE). On the 3rd of September, 2008 eighteen days later it was reactivated. If you are in a similar situation this post may help you get your account, videos, subscriptions, and subscribers back so lets get started!
But firstly, lets start off with some very important information. The reason I believe my counter-DMCA notification worked is because my videos did not contain any copyright infringing media (video, pictures, or audio) owned by the WWE. They were wrestling commentaries which I feel fall under fair use. If you don't know what counts as fair use it will really pay to read up on it now. My research began with Renetto's (or Paul Robinett on YouTube and his) DMCA videos. Anyway, if your videos contain any material (even from live shows like some of my others videos do) this probably won't work for you. Also, check out YouTube's Terms of Use and Copyright Tips pages. Links below but read on first ;)
Okay, with that over with let's go through what happened to me. Many months ago I received an email from YouTube with the following subject line "Video Removed: Copyright Infringement". Two of these later and my account was suspended (3 in total)
On a side note it is common knowledge amongst wrestling "shooters" (or bloggers) on YouTube that the WWE are one of a few companies that take copyright infringement very seriously so it might pay to post material by less protective companies but in my case wrestling is one of my passions so I hope they will get used to our style of commentary. Anywho, this was something I was aware of and joked occasionally on my show about but never took too seriously until it happened to me, and well.. you know what happened - our account got suspended. That could have meant that I had to start from scratch but frankly I wasn't prepared to give up on my subscribers so easily!
Back on topic, the copyright infringement emails I received from YouTube all contained the following bit of information, "If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Centre to access the instructions". I'm sure after reading the Help Centre page most people would probably stop there and go create another account but I say, "DON'T GIVE UP! IT'S EASIER THAN YOU THINK". I mean sure.. it takes a bit of work and you have to put your personal information on the counter-notification, BUT.. which is easier: writing a letter or reposting all your videos and trying to get all your subscribers back again? If you picked the second option you're a dooche bag :p
So, assuming you believe your videos do not infringe on anyone's copyrighted material and that the copyright owners may have made a mistake in their claim against you (this is important) go ahead and write up a formal counter-DMCA notification. You can call on a lawyer if you want, base yours on mine (click on the image below for how I did mine) or you can use one of the many others online. Whatever you do remember to adjust the counter-DMCA notification to your own situation!
So after you've had a formal letter written up and asked someone with excellent English skills proof-read it for you (WARNING: txt, sms, or anything remotely shorthand will completely kill your case) only then do you email it to YouTube's copyright centre. Remember! If you can't write English very well have someone who CAN do it for you. Also.. I'll note again you don't need a lawyer to do this for you although one may help if the claimant decides to take this further (like to court.. eek)
In my email to YouTube I explained my situation: that I felt my videos had been removed as the result of a mistake on their part (which you have to do when filing a counter-DMCA notification for some reason even though I'm sure there must be alot of DMCA "mistakes" on YouTube). Click on the image below for more info on what I said in my email to YouTube for my counter-DMCA notification. Note: the slightly less-formal language I use in my email and how I reiterate some of what I say in the attached letter (from above)
With my email and attached counter-DMCA notification sent to YouTube the rest was up to the WWE. Basically, they could respond to YouTube or to me personally within the next 10 days (I assume they mean working/business days since it took much longer than that) to counter-counter my counter-DMCA claim (lolz). Now, these 10 days weren't so pleasant because if you're contacted by the claimant that usually means they're going to take you to court and life will become very, very unpleasant and expensive for everyone. Luckily for me that didn't happen but then I was pretty sure they would let it go since my material was and is a pretty solid case for fair use
Anyway, after 10 days which became 17 days I had not been contacted by YouTube so I decided to send them a reminder email (below). I figured enough time had passed so I could be a little pro-active. Also, I was really missing YouTube at this stage!
"Hi there,
It's now been over 10 business working days since videos were removed from YouTube and subsequently my account (lostinz) suspended.
I was wondering if you have heard from the original claimant yet, and if not whether my YouTube account (and videos) would be restored.
Thank you.
Regards, Cliff"
The email above got my account restored within the day and the final one below got the copyright claims on the two videos removed. I figured there were two reasons I went through all this and only one of them had been done. Best to see this through I thought!
"Hi again and thank you,
The account has been restored although the two videos which had the copyright claim on them (and subsequent counter claim) are still blocked. Will you be unblocking them soon?
The Videos and URLs (as listed in the counter notification) are..
BTB: MITB at WM24, Kofi, and Kane (1 of 2):
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ7KMVNQPgc
BTB: BL Predictions (2 of 2):
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=44yE-ujz9U0
Thank you
Regards, Cliff"
So this is pretty much the whole story from start to finish of how I got my account reactivated after being suspended. If this has happened to you I really hope this post helps you in some way. For more information I've added Renetto's DMCA video and some useful links below
Renetto's Video on his counter-DMCA notification process:
Useful Links:
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=59826
http://w2.eff.org/IP/eff_fair_use_faq.php
http://chillingeffects.org/fairuse/faq.cgi
http://nz.youtube.com/t/terms
http://nz.youtube.com/t/howto_copyright
Regards, Cliff
But firstly, lets start off with some very important information. The reason I believe my counter-DMCA notification worked is because my videos did not contain any copyright infringing media (video, pictures, or audio) owned by the WWE. They were wrestling commentaries which I feel fall under fair use. If you don't know what counts as fair use it will really pay to read up on it now. My research began with Renetto's (or Paul Robinett on YouTube and his) DMCA videos. Anyway, if your videos contain any material (even from live shows like some of my others videos do) this probably won't work for you. Also, check out YouTube's Terms of Use and Copyright Tips pages. Links below but read on first ;)
Okay, with that over with let's go through what happened to me. Many months ago I received an email from YouTube with the following subject line "Video Removed: Copyright Infringement". Two of these later and my account was suspended (3 in total)
On a side note it is common knowledge amongst wrestling "shooters" (or bloggers) on YouTube that the WWE are one of a few companies that take copyright infringement very seriously so it might pay to post material by less protective companies but in my case wrestling is one of my passions so I hope they will get used to our style of commentary. Anywho, this was something I was aware of and joked occasionally on my show about but never took too seriously until it happened to me, and well.. you know what happened - our account got suspended. That could have meant that I had to start from scratch but frankly I wasn't prepared to give up on my subscribers so easily!
Back on topic, the copyright infringement emails I received from YouTube all contained the following bit of information, "If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Centre to access the instructions". I'm sure after reading the Help Centre page most people would probably stop there and go create another account but I say, "DON'T GIVE UP! IT'S EASIER THAN YOU THINK". I mean sure.. it takes a bit of work and you have to put your personal information on the counter-notification, BUT.. which is easier: writing a letter or reposting all your videos and trying to get all your subscribers back again? If you picked the second option you're a dooche bag :p
So, assuming you believe your videos do not infringe on anyone's copyrighted material and that the copyright owners may have made a mistake in their claim against you (this is important) go ahead and write up a formal counter-DMCA notification. You can call on a lawyer if you want, base yours on mine (click on the image below for how I did mine) or you can use one of the many others online. Whatever you do remember to adjust the counter-DMCA notification to your own situation!
So after you've had a formal letter written up and asked someone with excellent English skills proof-read it for you (WARNING: txt, sms, or anything remotely shorthand will completely kill your case) only then do you email it to YouTube's copyright centre. Remember! If you can't write English very well have someone who CAN do it for you. Also.. I'll note again you don't need a lawyer to do this for you although one may help if the claimant decides to take this further (like to court.. eek)
In my email to YouTube I explained my situation: that I felt my videos had been removed as the result of a mistake on their part (which you have to do when filing a counter-DMCA notification for some reason even though I'm sure there must be alot of DMCA "mistakes" on YouTube). Click on the image below for more info on what I said in my email to YouTube for my counter-DMCA notification. Note: the slightly less-formal language I use in my email and how I reiterate some of what I say in the attached letter (from above)
With my email and attached counter-DMCA notification sent to YouTube the rest was up to the WWE. Basically, they could respond to YouTube or to me personally within the next 10 days (I assume they mean working/business days since it took much longer than that) to counter-counter my counter-DMCA claim (lolz). Now, these 10 days weren't so pleasant because if you're contacted by the claimant that usually means they're going to take you to court and life will become very, very unpleasant and expensive for everyone. Luckily for me that didn't happen but then I was pretty sure they would let it go since my material was and is a pretty solid case for fair use
Anyway, after 10 days which became 17 days I had not been contacted by YouTube so I decided to send them a reminder email (below). I figured enough time had passed so I could be a little pro-active. Also, I was really missing YouTube at this stage!
"Hi there,
It's now been over 10 business working days since videos were removed from YouTube and subsequently my account (lostinz) suspended.
I was wondering if you have heard from the original claimant yet, and if not whether my YouTube account (and videos) would be restored.
Thank you.
Regards, Cliff"
The email above got my account restored within the day and the final one below got the copyright claims on the two videos removed. I figured there were two reasons I went through all this and only one of them had been done. Best to see this through I thought!
"Hi again and thank you,
The account has been restored although the two videos which had the copyright claim on them (and subsequent counter claim) are still blocked. Will you be unblocking them soon?
The Videos and URLs (as listed in the counter notification) are..
BTB: MITB at WM24, Kofi, and Kane (1 of 2):
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ7KMVNQPgc
BTB: BL Predictions (2 of 2):
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=44yE-ujz9U0
Thank you
Regards, Cliff"
So this is pretty much the whole story from start to finish of how I got my account reactivated after being suspended. If this has happened to you I really hope this post helps you in some way. For more information I've added Renetto's DMCA video and some useful links below
Renetto's Video on his counter-DMCA notification process:
Useful Links:
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=59826
http://w2.eff.org/IP/eff_fair_use_faq.php
http://chillingeffects.org/fairuse/faq.cgi
http://nz.youtube.com/t/terms
http://nz.youtube.com/t/howto_copyright
Regards, Cliff
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
Do you realise tna is the future of wrestling wwe sucks it is just for kiddies who think john cena is superman tna is actually sport not soap opera like wwe watch tna or roh they are real pure wrestling entertainment.
PS:i AM ONLY 10 YEARS OLD!