Turkey Lifts YouTube Ban... But Only After Someone Made Questionable Copyright Claim On 'Offending' Video

from the censorship-by-copyright dept

Mon, Nov 1st 2010 7:04am — Mike Masnick

It's been years since Turkey "banned" access to YouTube in the country, after some (apparently Greek) users uploaded a video making fun of the country's founder, Ataturk (which is considered a crime in Turkey). The ban has been considered ridiculous by nearly everyone. Earlier this year, reporters started speaking up about how stupid the ban was, followed by Turkey's own President, Abdullah Gul, complaining about the bans (via Twitter of all places), saying that he was against the ban on YouTube (and other parts of Google) and had asked the "responsible institutions for a solution." The issue, apparently is that the bans come from a different part of the government -- one that is highly bureaucratic, with a person who heads the (I kid you not) "Ataturk Thought Association," claiming that the block is "about respect" for Ataturk and saying that she is "not bothered by the impact of the court decision."

However, over the weekend the news came out that the YouTube ban has been lifted, with a bureaucrat in charge saying that "common sense prevailed." At first, you might agree... until you read further. It appears by "common sense prevailed" -- he doesn't mean that the bureaucrats realized how ridiculous it is to ban an entire website based on one immature video uploaded by random users... but in that the video had been taken down off of YouTube. That's because after saying that, he also said:

"I hope that they have also learned from this experience and the same thing will not happen again. YouTube will hopefully carry out its operations in Turkey within the limits of law in the future."

So... what happened to the video? Well, it's been taken down, but YouTube has stated that it had nothing to do with the takedown directly. Instead, YouTube is claiming that the video was taken down after someone made a copyright claim on the video, which resulted in the video being automatically pulled. However, YouTube is now "investigating whether this action is valid in accordance with our copyright policy." Of course, the likely answers is that it is not. It's doubtful that the guys who made and uploaded the video made a copyright claim on their own video, so it seems likely that someone made a bogus copyright claim and got the video taken down (it's also potentially possible that something in the video violated someone else's copyright, but no one seems to have suggested that). That could mean that the video will go back up shortly, and Turkey might just go back to banning YouTube again.

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Filed Under: ataturk, bans, copyright, turkey
Companies: google, youtube

27 Comments

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Nina Paley (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 7:38am

censorship
Thank goodness someone figured out how to censor it the American way. This Turkish censorship is so distasteful. Use copyright to censor, like we in the "free" world do!

/sarcasm (I'm having an unusually sarcastic morning)
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2010 @ 7:40am

This whole thing is ridiculous and funny, if it weren't true.
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Hulser (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 7:58am

The ban will not be put back
That could mean that the video will go back up shortly, and Turkey might just go back to banning YouTube again.

If the video goes back up, I don't think they'll ban YouTube again. When the video came down, the Ataturk Thought Association probably jumped at the chance to lift the ban on YouTube. They likely used the removal of the video as a pretext to do something they wanted to do, but couldn't because they'd lose face. If I was conspiratorially minded, I�d say that the ATA could themselves have been behind the takedown request. Even Orwellian government agencies can feel political pressure.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2010 @ 8:00am

Ataturk is a childish jerk. There, now Turkey can ban Techdirt.
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Michael, 1 Nov 2010 @ 8:04am

Turkey
All this talk about Turkey right before Thanksgiving is making me Hungary.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 8:07am

Re:
Ata'boy, AC....
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Dark Helmet (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 8:12am

Re: Turkey
I'd go get a Turkey sandwich right now, if I wasn't in such a Russia....
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nasch (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 8:30am

Re: Re: Turkey
Kenya make time for it later?
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Dark Helmet (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 8:33am

Re: Re: Re: Turkey
Nah, it's getting cold out, so I'm just going to make Chile instead....
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2010 @ 8:42am

Re: Re:
Actually, I'm reading about him on Wikipedia and he doesn't seem all that bad. I just said it to make a point.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 8:48am

Re: Re: Re:
And mine was just to make a joke. I actually have no idea who/what Ataturk is/was, but I guess I know what I'll be doing over lunch today....
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Jimmy Rushmore, 1 Nov 2010 @ 9:01am

Turkey has a lot of laws and regulations (primarily resulting from Ataturk's reforms) that from a Western perspective seem draconian and outmoded, but are the principle reason it's a stable secular democracy unlike most other predominantly Muslim countries. It's almost unfair to judge them by our standards.
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crade (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 9:09am

Re:
You're right, it *is* our duty to post things making fun of Ataturk everywhere on the internet!
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Hephaestus (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 9:22am

Re: censorship
Nina

Get some coffee ... grin and smile ... take a deep breath ... is all good now ???
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 9:24am

Re:
I can respect that they want to govern their own people their own way, but thought police? I don't think that's just in violation of our western ideals, I think that's a human rights violation.

Also, it's one thing to ban Youtube, it's another to expect anyone in the US to live up to their ideals and not post that video or another like it again (and again, and again, and again).
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Hephaestus (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 9:29am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Turkey
There are a Brazillion reasons to not make fun of Ataturk. I wonder who Greeced the wheels to lift this ban. Also was Ataturk his Suriname?
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Dark Helmet (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 9:36am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Turkey
Niger of us knows the answer to that. Irish we did, but we don't. Maybe someone else can Czech?
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Jim O (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 10:24am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Turkey
I was Ghana look it up, but I have Togo to class.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 10:30am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Turkey
Ugh, Jamaican me crazy! But it's okay, Iran to the computer and looked it up. Why? Because Iraq....
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ertan, 1 Nov 2010 @ 12:49pm

Re:
Read before post.
Hungary?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary
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ertan, 1 Nov 2010 @ 12:53pm

Re: Re:
Upps, sorry guys, got it when I read the replies. That is nice.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2010 @ 12:54pm

Re:
Yeah, if it weren't for the ability to ban YouTube because someone's feelings were hurt, Turkey would become an unstable religious theocracy!
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Niall (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 1:35pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Turkey
"Long-legged Italy kicked poor Sicily right into the middle
of the Mediterranean Sea.

Austria was Hungary, took a bit of Turkey, dipped it in Greece, fried it in Japan and ate it off China."
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2010 @ 3:23pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Come to think about it, maybe wikipedia painted him in a not so bad light so Turkey doesn't ban wikipedia too.
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BearGriz72 (profile), 1 Nov 2010 @ 3:53pm

Surprisingly Delayed Obligatory 1984 Reference
"Ataturk Thought Association" ≈ MiniTrue
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hmm, 2 Nov 2010 @ 3:52pm

So basically anyone at all has a way to mess with Turkey and its economy just by either posting anti-ataturk commentary or uploading an expletive filled ataturk video?

wow...such control over the entire country given to anyone who wants it!!!

I wonder if you got some anti-ataturk sites to the top of google if they'd ban that? (there's probably ways to get microsoft.com banned also..crippling turkish windows update)
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help you, 1 Nov 2011 @ 1:12am

solution for you
if your youtube account or computer banned /

blocked by youtube,
i see the solution at:

http://youtube-fix.4shared.com
.
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