Monday, April 27, 2009

Cellan-Jones YouTube football video takedown

Rory Cellan-Jones has been on the receiving end of a YouTube takedown and warning notice.
"For the second time in a year, I'm in trouble with YouTube - and finding out just how closely the video-sharing service is now policed for any whiff of copyright infringement.

Last year I received a warning that a video I had uploaded of my family playing in the park featured copyrighted material in the form of a Cat Stevens song, used as a backing track.

In that case it was allowed to remain on the site, although advertising appeared alongside my video, as a result of an agreement between Google and the record labels on "monetising" music videos.

But now a video I uploaded at the weekend has been deleted - and I've received a stiff warning that my whole account could be closed down if I fail to behave myself.

This time the copyright issue involved not music, but football. I'd visited one of the big matches of the weekend - Brentford v Exeter City - and uploaded exactly 37 seconds of action...

I'd somehow forgotten that the Football League are policing YouTube closely - and also assumed that they were looking out for material grabbed from the television, not a few frames of video shot from the crowd.

It looks as though my camera doesn't belong to me once I go through the turnstiles at a football ground. Maybe they should have the same signs that you get at cinemas, warning against the use of a video camera."

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