Guinness World Records People Accidentally Claiming Copyright On Tons Of 'Super Mario Bros.' Speedruns

from the automagic-mistake dept

Even a cursory review of just the headlines on our posts about YouTube's ContentID will demonstrate a theme. That theme mostly centers around how the automagic copyright detection system that YouTube put in place is mostly useful for creating collateral damage on non-infringing material, often times at the expense of the rightsholders themselves. Whenever this happens, there are usually apologies issued, blame cast on ContentID for the mistake, and then everything continues on with no changes made. Which is absurd. These situations identify a flaw in the ContentID system, or the use of an automated system of any kind, and yet we never do anything about it.

Which is why this sort of thing keeps happening. The most recent example of this concerns tons of Super Mario Bros. speedruns being issued copyright notices because the YouTube channel for the Guinness Book of World Records uploaded a record-holding speedrun itself. From there, ContentID did its thing.

About nine months ago, Guinness put together a video profile on Super Mario Bros speedrunner Kosmic including footage from his record-breaking warpless run. Now, Kosmic’s own video of the record and tons of other SMB speedrunners have had copyright claims made on their similar videos.

Guinness have now released those claims saying “sorry for causing concern, we know how distressing it can be to get these notifications,” signed by Dan. Ta, Dan.

The Guinness people later tweeted out the explanation that ContentID was to blame for sending out the automatic claims. And I believe them. Still, this is again highlighting a flaw within the ContentID system, in that, far too often, legitimate content either gets taken down or issued a copyright notice all because no human being actually has to look at anything before those go out. And, since there are plenty of ways a video could use similar content, or even a copy of some part of some content, without being infringing, the automatic system fails at distinguishing that and sends out the notice anyway.

This is how it always is with these automatic content policing systems. And yet here is another case where the apology is made, the apologizer blames ContentID, and on and on we go. Even when another speedrunner, Karl Jobst, did a video on how his speedrun received a copyright notice, that video received a notice as well.

Funnily enough, even Jobst’s video on the subject initially got slapped with a copyright claim. Thankfully it sounds like Guinness have cooled their trigger finger.

But it's not funny. It's just frustrating.

Filed Under: auto claims, contentid, copyright, kosmic, speedruns, super mario bros., takedowns, world records
Companies: guinness, youtube

DailyDirt: July Is National Hot Dog Month

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

In 1972, a guy could eat just 14 hot dogs at the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest and win. The highest number of hot dogs consumed since then is a nauseating impressive 69 hot dogs, but if you can eat more than 60 or so, you can still compete with the best of them. If you like hot dogs, but maybe don't want to eat more than a couple at a time, check out a few of these links.

• Hot dogs are the 'perfect' size and shape for little kids to choke on, so how can the traditional hot dog design be improved? Several kid-friendly hot dog concepts redesigned for safety have been created, but these designs probably won't make it to ballparks or backyard grills any time soon. [url]
• Maybe you don't really want to know how the sausage is made, but it's actually one of the most common questions -- so the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council gives people the answer. If you've imagined some weird parts being chopped up and put into hot dogs, rest assured that the USDA requires a label indicating the product was made "with variety meats" -- an uncommon product in the US. [url]
• According to Guinness World Records, the world's most expensive hot dog costs $169 from a Seattle-based food truck Tokyo Dog, and this bratwurst is topped with Wagyu beef, foie gras, shaved black truffles and caviar. The former record hailed from Sacramento and cost just $145.49. People actually have to buy at least one at full price for the record to count, so if you want to get your name out there... make sure you have at least one wealthy customer who might like gold flakes or caviar on an overpriced hot dog. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: eating contests, food, food truck, hot dogs, national hot dog and sausage council, sausages, tokyo dog, usda, world records

DailyDirt: Flying Paper Airplanes

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Folding paper has been taken to an extreme in recent years, and a few entertaining examples involve making paper airplanes. Almost anyone can make a paper airplane (even some robots can do it), but to really make your mark, you have to do something pretty extraordinary with construction paper. Here are just a few world records for paper airplanes.

• A giant 45-foot long paper airplane was released from a helicopter over the Arizona desert, promoting the PIMA Air and Space Museum. It didn't fly for very long, but it was big enough that the helicopter pilot jettisoned the big paper plane slightly earlier than planned because it was pulling on the helicopter a bit too much. [url]
• A Japanese engineer, Takuo Toda, flew his paper airplane which stayed aloft for 27.9 seconds -- setting a world record in 2009. But for Toda, 28 seconds is nothing compared to his dream of launching a paper plane from the edge of space.... [url]
• Throwing a paper airplane that can fly over 226 feet isn't easy, but it can be done -- and it beats the previous record of just over 207 feet (set in 2003). Hmm. How far can a robot arm throw a paper airplane? [url]
• To discover more cool sites about aviation, check out what's currently flying around StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: origami, paper airplanes, paper planes, pima air and space museum, world records

What's The Guinness World Record For Morons In A Hurry Sending Bogus Takedowns?

from the just-wondering... dept

I think we've set a new world record for any particular story being submitted to us here at Techdirt. I'd actually ask the folks at the Guinness Book of World Records to verify that... but I don't think they really want to have much to do with this story. You see, there's a wonderful blog out there called the Fail Blog. If you don't read it regularly, it's like you're not really online at all. It's quite amusing. It usually involves pictures of random (hilarious) "failures" of some kind or another. Last week, it had a great one. It involved the website of the Guinness World Record book, where it had an entry on the "most individuals killed in a terrorist attack." What was the failure? Well... it appears that the Guinness records' web template includes a link on each record for "break this record." Not quite the sort of thing you would think that GWR folks wanted to encourage when it comes to the most people killed in a terrorist attack.

So how does Guinness respond? Certainly not by fixing the screwed up template. And, apparently not by taking some time to think it over while drinking a tall glass of Guinness. Instead, it released the legal hounds on the Fail Blog and threatened the site with a totally bogus trademark infringement claim, saying that because the screenshot included the Guinness World Record logo, it was a trademark violation. Of course, that's preposterous. Still, Fail Blog complied, took down the original, but posted Guinness' letter, its own rather direct response, and a new version of the screenshot with the Guinness World Record logo pixelated. Nobody will ever figure it out now: Oh, and it looks like the Guinness folks have finally taken down the original world record page...

Filed Under: blogs, screenshots, trademark, world records
Companies: guinness