One of many problems inherent in almost any kind of censorship — even censorship that’s valid in the first place — is function creep.
Think of a clever strategy to block illegal images of child sexual abuse, and someone will want to use it to block piracy websites, and so on. Push ISPs to install parental-control filters, and soon the infrastructure has been used to block extremist videos along with other “dangerous content”. And so on. It’s all well-intentioned, but censorship with good goals can nevertheless fail.
Here’s one such example. The fantastically called Myles Power is a science blogger from Middlesbrough. His web site features oodles of educational YouTube videos, from how to extract DNA from strawberries to producing a simple jet engine in the dwelling.
He got his start — or at least a bump up the YouTube positions — after being asked by Google’s video website to become something called an “EDU master”, which essentially means they flew the Brit to San Francisco to instruct him how better to share his passion for science education online.
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Tomorrow, nevertheless, he’s in danger of getting his whole YouTube channel of science instruction videos yanked, following a DMCA takedown request.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a US law that gives websites “safe harbour” from copyright claims should they act fast to take down infringing content when notified by the owner. Put simply, if someone posts, say, Miley Cyrus’ whole catalogue of songs on YouTube, her record label can ask Google to delete the videos. As well it should (not least to stop her spread).
Due to the epic scale of handling this — a lot of people post lots of infringing content — much of the process is automated. Any individual or organisation can file a claim of infringement through Google’s site for its search results or YouTube content. They’re assumed to assert only if they possess the content, or are acting on the owner’s behalf, and, naturally, only if their claim is valid. Nonetheless, there’s nothing preventing someone from submitting a claim against, for example, PC Pro’s own station, even though we weren’t infringing anything (which we aren’t, thus don’t get any ideas), and we’d be forced to react to prevent trouble.
And that’s what occured to Power — though he’s not exactly uploading pop songs. Alongside his educational work, he creates Bad Science-style videos debunking erroneous science beliefs. His most recent has focused on an AIDS-denying documentary, which has brought the interest of the group behind the film. That group has issued multiple DMCA takedown notices requesting that the content be removed from YouTube — which Google has obediently done. And because he’s had so many grievances, the rest of Power’s content — unrelated to that particular documentary — is also prone to being pulled.
Quite simply, it’s censorship by copyright law.
Power has a recourse, apart from trusting journalists will hassle Google enough to sort this problem out. He can file a “counter-notification” via a link directly in his account — but this takes ten days to process. The initial claims against his account hit on 7 February, and because he’s had so many gripes (all from the exact same source) his account is at risk of conclusion on 18 February.
To stop the process, it seems he can file a “valid” counter-notification, and expect YouTube and Google agree with him. Power’s fans, meanwhile, have found other ways to respond, notably uploading his videos to other sharing sites, to ensure they remain available regardless of YouTube’s final decision.
There’s another downside to Google’s system, nonetheless. It isn’t the web giant’s error, but as the counter-notice is a legal document, it includes your “personal info” — making it a convenient way to track down private details of your critics, in the event you intend to harass them further (though there’s no suggestion that’s the motivation in Power’s case).
The straightforward fact remains an educational blogger — one that is flown around the world by YouTube itself in acknowledgement of the worthiness of his uploads — is being forced to fight paperwork battles and PR skirmishes thanks to abuse of the DMCA, when he should be teaching kids how to (safely) burst matters in the pursuit of scientific knowledge.
This isn’t the first time this has happened, plus it certainly won’t be the last. Google has sought to draw attention to the specific situation, publishing every copyright notice it receives via the Chilling Effects website, but what’s actually wanted is a better system for stopping harassment via DMCA.
Copyright dilemmas need dealing with, but any law that lets content to be banned to get a great motive can be mistreated to remove something for the wrong reasons. We must build in protections at the start of such a procedure, as opposed to allowing educators to be shoved off YouTube.
