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[Bauglir]

Other rage: the guy on the next floor up has been apparently PISSING OUT OF HIS WINDOW AND ONTO MINE, SPLATTERING THE RADIATOR INSIDE MY ROOM for the past few weeks.  At first I thought it was just some weird gutter runoff, but no.  It seems to be piss.  After all, why else would there be telltale yellowish streams, always at night, and always with a urination sort of sound and quantity?

Needless to say he's been reported.

Why would somebody do that? I don't even

[Vector]

Apparently a lot of guys do stuff like that, or pissing into a water bottle and then throwing it out in the trash when it's full, because they just don't want to bother to use the bathroom.

*shrug*

[Sirus]

What the fuck.

[Max White]

When you say a lot of guys, do you mean a lot of guys, or a lot of guys that you are exposed to? We might have selection bias here.
I mean no offence, but the guys in the maths class act very differently from the guys in the art class. Not saying any one is better than the other, but priorities tend to be different.

[Flying Dice]

I think you mean "a lot of really disgusting people". Even more so when you consider that in undergrad dorms you're never more than a dozen steps or so from a bathroom.

[Solifuge]

So, just got hit by more bogus Copyright Claims on Youtube. Worst batch yet.

If you didn't know, Youtube's policy on Copyright Claims allows just about anyone to file one on behalf of another party ("Funimation" even filed one against themselves: Link), you are assumed to be guilty until you can prove yourself innocent. You also only get one shot to contest a Copyright Claim, unless you want to escalate to a court battle. And if you do escalate, you risk hundreds of dollars in fines, as well as losing your channel and content forever.

Anyway, I did the necessary homework as I have before, and put together a letter contesting the claim for Youtube's legal team. It explained that what I did was a Transformative work according to Fair Use (complete with citations and links for further reading), and considered my own content by US Copyright Law; I was free to broadcast and even sell the content, if I wanted to. Their response? A series of canned letters denying my claim, as "Creative Commons doesn't apply to your content," which 1) I already knew, B) wasn't a license I even mentioned, and III) is completely irrelevant to the situation. And then they linked me to their insulting Copyright School video. Again.

Basically they upheld their claim without even reading my reply, and as my only chance to contest it, I was already pretty livid. But the cherry on top? One of the videos which they denied my claim on? Which they said would be illegal to run advertisements on, to raise money for my channel? Youtube took my content, and started running their own ads on it, to raise money for themselves. Despite that this flies in direct violation of using my copyrighted content (featuring my likeness, my voice, my shitty jokes, and my critical commentary). And because Youtube effectively has a monopoly on the HD Video Streaming Industry... an Industry worth 45 Billion Dollars? Which produces 3 days of content for them every minute, and does this for them for free? And because most of those people are like me, and just want to entertain people, and can't afford a legal team to protect their creativity? Because of these things, I have no recourse... nor am I willing to risk my meager success just to call them on their bullshit.

Bigger channels like SmoshGames, the Yogscast, and even PewDiePie, upload the same kind of content I do, and even monetize it with advertisements, yet they are given a wide berth. They're under the protection of The Game Station and Maker Studios, which have paid legal teams that can actually afford to take this Copyright bullshit to the Courtroom. So Youtube doesn't push their crap Copyright Claims on them. But for the innumerable folks in my position, small fries who don't earn a living off Youtube Content, and can't afford a Legal Team to protect themselves and their content? We're being taken advantage of.

Yet another sign that Copyright Reform is something we desperately need. And that I should have taken that Network Deal while I had the chance. >_<;

[MetalSlimeHunt]

What you should do is make all your videos unlisted and link them to whomever you want to show them.

[Solifuge]

What, silence myself, and defeat the whole purpose of open creative expression? Even if it just means less shitty puns and video game shenanigans on the internet? Hell no.

What I should do is band together with a bunch of creative content-makers, and produce a short piece that discusses how broken our Copyright System is, explores the nature of Intellectual Property, Fair Use, Copyright Law, Transformative Works, Piracy, and other related issues, details how it has affected content creators, and generally raise awareness of this kind of bullshit.

My case is a little and relatively frivolous thing, but the greater issue it ties into is not. This is probably going to be one of the big legal issues of our time.

[Vector]

Dammit, did I not add the "here?"  I'm sorry about that.  I meant "it is known that a certain number of young men in this particular dorm have this habit."

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Solifuge, listen to me. There are dozens if not hundreds of flag bots that go around Youtube flagging every video that has certain keywords in it. This is probably why you got struck. By doing what I've suggested you take yourself out of that scenario.

Does that prevent random people from coming across your videos? Yes. But unless you've got hundreds of subscribers rolling already random people aren't going to be a big part of your audience. You've got a community here that you can show videos, and we're already in the hundreds.

By all means, join the Free Culture/Pirate/Anticopyright/Whateveryouwanttocallit Movement, but that isn't going to help you in the here and now.

My other solution for helping you in the here and now would be to make videos about different games. I'm not sure what you got struck for, but if I was a betting man I'd say it was released in the last two years.

[Solifuge]

I like you guys, but you're not really the target demographic (apparently it's 12-16 year olds from North America, the UK, and Scandinavia, who like shouting a lot). And I'm a little more than 2/3s to 1,000 Subscribers, which is probably why the claims have been increasing. I might go to a Network and see if they'll take me, if just for the legal protection.

But more important than that, the fact that this happens to people is wrong, and it should change. And I don't like rolling over when life whips out injustices born of indifference. Those pretty much piss me off.

[Rose]

What happens to an account that flags every video everywhere?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Nothing, really. Youtube's official response to false copyright claims was to institute the escalation system, since a false claimer could be sued if you chose to escalate and they don't hold the rights to their claim. In practice, most people can't afford it even if they're in the right.

[Loud Whispers]

Copyright rage? Not just that.

Materialism has gone too far.

It's water.

[Max White]

Nope, it is a shallow context for a fancy bottle.
I mean seriously, there is no need to throw the bottle away when you are done. It is vain and superficial? Well yes, but at least you aren't paying that much for water, you are buying a diamond laced water bottle.