Recently I was contacted via twitter by GeoGodley who wanted to know if I would be interested in joining him in his class action lawsuit against YouTube. I had to decline for several reasons. First, YouTube's decision to terminate my account was justified. I violated YouTube's trademark policy and the only course of action for them was to terminate my account. You can read the full report about YouTube's decision HERE. Likewise the other channels such as TheHealthyChannel were taken down for copyright violations.
Although YouTube has not gotten back to me with the URLs I need to do my counter-notices, YouTube made the right decision in accordance with the DMCA law enacted in 1998 which requires the disabling of accounts found to be repeat infringers of copyright. You can read more about that HERE.
Finally, I am not able to join in any class action lawsuit because I signed away that right in 2007 when I created my YouTube account. In order to create a YouTube account you have to read and agree to the terms of service. Part of the terms of service, section 11, says that I must not hold YouTube or it's employees liable for my violations of the terms of service. Section 7b also states essentially that YouTube can terminate any account for any reason.
So long story short, I can not join in the class action lawsuit because I feel that YouTube made the right decision in terminating my account and that because I agreed to the Terms of Service when I created my account, I am not eligible to sue anyway.
However, Geogodley is in a different position than I am. Although he did agree to the Terms of Service, his lawyer is convinced that he would have proper standing in court. He also does not believe that his account termination was justified. Specifically he is suing for Fraud, Breach of Contract, Gross Negligence, and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress.
You can read more about his case at http://georgegodley.com/?p=12566 He feels that the URL that used to go to his channel that now reads that his account was terminated for violations of the community guidelines and or copyright infringement is not only defamatory but also libelous.
In this blog post of his http://georgegodley.com/?p=12053 Geogodley lays down evidence that the YouTube employee targeting him is a sexist woman. This is due to the flagging and removal of this video. Due to Blogger's terms of service I can not type the name of the title to the video here. However you should be able to see it from the video embed.
As viewers of my old channel know, one of the things that you always want to avoid when posting a video is curse words. I used to have a tutorial on how to avoid being flagged and that was one of my main points. The other thing to avoid is name calling in the title of the video. Does this mean that the video deserved to be flagged? In of itself I would say no. Had a more appropriate title been used the video and perhaps his channel may have survived. However you have to be very careful when picking a title for your videos.
In this video Geogodley on his second account discusses how YouTube is harassing and threatening him as they continue to flag down his videos.
Anyway, although I can not join in the class action lawsuit for reasons already stated, others may have a desire to do so. Here is his contact page from his website. http://georgegodley.com/?page_id=104
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