YouTube Briefly Shuts Down Blizzard's Own YouTube Channel For Copyright Infringement

from the three-strikes dept

Wed, Nov 26th 2014 12:38pm — Mike Masnick

YouTube's ContentID system gets mocked quite frequently for bogus takedowns, which happen with unfortunate frequency. The latest, as pointed out by YouTube star Total Biscuit is that Blizzard's own damn YouTube channel for World Championship Series StarCraft, WCSStarCraft, was down for at least 40 minutes earlier today. If you visited the page during that time, you saw the following:

A YouTuber who follows Totalbiscuit, Ryan Wyatt, quickly noted that the company was "working on it", but it still looks bad -- and again raises questions about why YouTube has given in to pressures from copyright holders to do excessive things like shutting down accounts based on accusations and matches, all too often leading to these kinds of results. Yes, the DMCA requires a process for removing accounts of repeat infringers, but that should require them to be actual infringers.

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Filed Under: content id, contentid, copyright, dmca, starcraft, takedown, wcs
Companies: blizzard, google, youtube

17 Comments

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silverscarcat (profile), 26 Nov 2014 @ 12:24pm

It's obviously working!
Look at Blizzard, illegally uploading streams of their own content. How dare they?! They should have to pay the movie, music and television studios billions of dollars in damages because... Because... Because copyright, that's why!
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Nov 2014 @ 12:50pm

The gamers are the reason people watch it so maybe they own the copyright?
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David (profile), 26 Nov 2014 @ 12:58pm

PERFECT!
If this happened more often, the content creators who pressured YouTube to do this in the first place might start pressuring them to stop!
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- JoeCool (profile), 26 Nov 2014 @ 1:17pm
  
  Re: PERFECT!
  Unfortunately, instead they'd demand the ability to bypass the automatic system that everyone else would still be subject too. If there's anything Hollywood/Music/Big Game love, it's a double-standard... as long as they get the good end of the deal. You get the raw end.
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Armstrong (profile), 26 Nov 2014 @ 2:29pm

Better
Thats a big shame for Blizzard...

Start advertising/publishing your products or iterms freely online at: CynMart.com: Free classified ads in Ghana and beyond . attract more costumers to your company or products.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Nov 2014 @ 2:48pm

Well, 2 things I ask, one, what law was exactly broken and two, how many millions of folks have done the exact same thing? Oh yes, was it Blizzard or was it someone NOT working for Blizzard who wanted to share the championships?
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Nov 2014 @ 5:44pm
  
  Re:
  Clearly Blizzard doesn't want to share their tournament footage.
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Atkray (profile), 26 Nov 2014 @ 6:00pm

The correct thing would be for the account to be forever banned as well as any ad-sense accounts even remotely connected to this account like they do to the unwashed masses.

No review no one to contact.

Tiering is great for storage, not so much for justice.
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Richard Jianos, 26 Nov 2014 @ 7:02pm

sound -- audio
I am not getting sound when I watch utube videos.

I do get sound when I watch other things on my computers.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Nov 2014 @ 7:46pm

Mike Masnick just hates copyright law enforcement.
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- PaulT (profile), 26 Nov 2014 @ 11:52pm
  
  Re:
  You may have changed the wording that you cut and paste into these threads, but that doesn't make them any more true or any less tiresome.
  
  I've never seen such an obsession with an invented fiction be so lazy.
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- Anonymous Howard (profile), 27 Nov 2014 @ 12:41am
  
  Re:
  Please point out any actual law that were enforced here.
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Nov 2014 @ 12:42am
  
  Re:
  "Mike Masnick just hates copyright law abuse."
  
  T,FTFY. Or would you prefer this more honest fix:
  
  "Mike Masnick just hates copyright law abuse, but I'll keep lying and implying he's against enforcement because I'm unscrupulous."
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Nov 2014 @ 3:27am
  
  Re:
  average_joe just hates it when due process is enforced.
  
  Did you tell your wife you were busy mancrushing for Mark Cuban?
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Ken Mitchell, 26 Nov 2014 @ 8:40pm

How To Prevent This
If there were a mandatory penalty of $100,000 per bogus DMCA takedown claim, there would be a LOT less of this.
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- PaulT (profile), 27 Nov 2014 @ 12:02am
  
  Re: How To Prevent This
  The problem is, YouTube have been pressured into putting in this kind of system to circumvent the DMCA. The people who should be sued have outsourced the enforcement so they collect royalties without any effort and can blame a 3rd party when things inevitably go wrong. They have enough morons who either swallow their lies or paid off by lobbyists that it's going to be difficult for YouTube whichever path they take - and those responsible won't face any real comeback.
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Techverx (profile), 28 Nov 2014 @ 2:52am

Who cares?
such cases become a daily routine gossip now not a big deal Moreover, youtube lost its fame due to such bogus takedowns but who cares, lot of other forums like it now are available in market.
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