SALON

Friday, Mar 1, 2013 7:30 PM UTC

YouTube’s copyright parasites

The dark side of the evolving economics of user-uploaded video

By

Topics: harlem shake, Let's Play, videogames, Gaming, Copyright, YouTube, ContentID, , ,

YouTube's copyright parasites A screen shot from "Let's Play Far Cry Part 9"

The evolving economics of YouTube continue to fascinate.

The monetization of user-created Harlem Shake videos by MadDecent, the label that owns the copyright to the song everyone is spazzing out to, and the YouTube music network INDMusic, is an example of how content creators and owners can make a profit in the age of unlimited sharing without resorting to threats or raging about piracy.

But TechDirt’s Tim Cushing has a report on how the same technologies employed in the case of the Harlem Shake are also being abused.

According to Cushing, gamers uploading “Let’s Play” videos — stretches of actual video gameplay captured for the entertainment of others — have been receiving bogus copyright claims from hard-to-pin-down outfits with names like Agora Aggregator and Digital Minds Entertainment.

(You may wonder why people would watch other people playing video games, rather than play them themselves. I understand your confusion. But there’s no question that this is a widespread phenomenon, something I can attest to personally, having watched my gamer son watch Let’s Play videos. The gaming companies who actually own the copyright to the content seem to have little problem with the practice — it’s free advertising.)

The claims are delivered via Google’s ContentID system, which offers copyright owners various options when a supposed violation is identified. The owner can ignore it, block it or monetize it by getting a piece of the ad revenue from commercials served along with the video.

In the case of the Let’s Play videos, if the uploader doesn’t challenge the claim, Agora Aggregator is then entitled to a piece of the revenue stream. But according to Cushing, when gamers challenged the claims, Agora Aggregator simply dropped them. The clear implication is that Agora Aggregator never had any legitimate copyright claims in the first place. It was simply a parasite capitalizing on a YouTube ecological niche that only existed because gamers were unwilling to challenge their claims, whether from ignorance or fear.

YouTube can’t do much to prevent this abuse. It has to err on the side of the rights holders, even if the rights holders don’t actually hold the rights. This is a necessity. It allows it to show that it takes proactive steps against infringement, a requirement in order to benefit from the Safe Harbor protections. The other issue is the massive volume it deals with — 72 hours uploaded every minute — which makes it impossible to police uploads with any level of detail. The system is exploitable, and the people behind these “companies” know it.

Seventy-two hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute! As the future unfolds, it’s hard to imagine that any other kind of content distribution network will be able to challenge YouTube in terms of sheer scale. Success as an artist will require having a sound YouTube monetization strategy. And even as legitimate business models flourish, so will the scams.

Andrew Leonard

Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21. More Andrew Leonard.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 9 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations