Tuesday, September 14, 2010

ArchieWhambulance and the DMCA *sigh*

ArchieWhambulance has made many videos in the past where he makes himself look like an ass but even I have to admit he usually does not upload content this FacepalmWorthy. Well today he did. The Youtube partner who once told me that he does not just make videos about ShaneDawson or iJustine uploaded a video today with ShaneDawson right in the title, even though the video only briefly mentioned ShaneDawson.

ArchieWhambulance first off does not understand the difference between flagging and a DMCA as he used the terms interchangably. Archie, a flag is when someone hits the flag button and the video is reviewed by YouTube for terms of service violations. The video is screened via a thumbnail generator similar to the one you see in the video uploader. Thus they can review a video in a matter of seconds. A DMCA is when someone claims a copyright infringement on your video and youtube takes it down.

Now I would like to point out that this is the 3rd DMCA that RWJ has gotten that I know of. However, every video he has since gotten back. In my opinion RWJ is on the edge of the fair use defense and if he were ever taken to court I think he would lose. However as far as YouTube is concerned, they have to take down a video upon receipt of a DMCA claim, and they have to put it back up upon receipt of a counter-claim.

After that, it is up to the original claimant to file suit seeking financial damages. Based on how much money I make on a video, I can assume that RWJ makes a few thousand from each video. Thus someone could take him to small claims court if they wished.

However YouTube does not have in place a protection for their superstars. Failblog has been suspended 3 times for copyright violations. Failblog of course is clear cut copyright infringement, no fair use defense is even possible, but they have the money to have the good lawyers. Failblog is run by the same guys who run Icanhazacheezeburger and a slew of other popular websites.

Smosh was suspended back in 2008, Nigahiga was suspended for copyright, They do take down videos for copyright infringement even against the bigger superstars. Now it is much harder to file a DMCA than it used to be, and this is due to the abuse of the DMCA. Right now, when filing a DMCA you have to provide proof to youtube that the video is yours and you have to provide a URL to your video. Or otherwise prove that it came from you. Now this is not to say that false DMCA's dont get through. On the contrary, they still do. I routinely DMCA myself just to stay aware of the changes because people often contact me for help with the counter-notice.

Out of 3 DMCA's I filed against myself two were rejected. Only one was sucessful and I have since gotten my video re-instated. Will RWJ be able to get his video back. Yes, he did it before. All he has to do is claim fair use. Is his video fair use, no I do not think that it is, but that is not for me or you to decide. It is not even for youtube to decide. Fair use is a defense you can claim in court. If they do decide to take him to court, they should be able to get awarded a cut of the profits he made from the video.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Making Friends For Selfish Reasons

I fear that one of my instructors is going to be rather hesitant in giving me a passing grade if I do not make friends at school. Here is the problem I am having. I do not want to make friends. My whole life I have not been good at making friends and it has never been an issue before.

I have always worked hard on the job and in most of my jobs I have been given promotions and extra responsibility. One of the reasons I do my job well is because I don't spend much time socializing. When I am on the clock, I work and my employers see that and I am rewarded.

One job I had at Motorolla back 10 years ago I proved to be highly productive. While my peers were producing on average 9 units of product per shift, I was able to produce 10-12 units per shift. Furthermore, my scrap rate was far below everyone else's. One of the reasons I was able to be so productive is that I never used my full break time. I would just use the bathroom when needed and grab a quick bite to eat and I would be back at work.

My last job involved not only doing the telephones like everyone else, but I was also in charge of the fax machine and handling the out of county calls. Furthermore, I had to take supervisor calls because our supervisor was either out smoking or was asleep. Making friends was never an issue because it was never a requirement.

Well now here at school this is something that I am going to have to do. My question is this: Is is morally right to make a friend solely for a self-serving objective? I would only be making friends just to pass the class and I have no interest in continuing the friendship once the class ends. In otherwords, I would be using someone.

Ethically this is something that I would have a hard time doing. I am not sure if this is something I would even be capable of, and I don't think I would like myself very much if I were able to do it.