| > I think we need to be angry at YouTube too. YouTube makes it exceptionally easy to file takedowns, no proof of validity required. You should be angry at how copyright law works in the U.S., not at the fact that YouTube has to follow it. The way that DMCA works is that when YouTube receives a takedown request, they have to honor it and take down the video as long as the request has all of the required information. Appeals take 10 days, which is also spelled out in the DMCA laws. If they don't follow the the laws, they could lose the safe harbor also provided by DMCA. There's a flowchart here of what the whole process looks like: http://readwrite.com/2012/02/23/how_dmca_takedown_notices_wo... It's a web form probably to make things easier on their end; they probably get hundreds of thousands [0] of these requests every day, and I can't even imagine trying to process that amount through letter mail or faxes. And while the web form may look simple, it's still a legal process. You need to sign into your account to use it, and they suggest that they punish people who are abusing the process: "Do not make false claims. Misuse of this process may result in the suspension of your account or other legal consequences." [1] > YouTube is not an open, or fair platform like it used to strive to be. It is now very much a revenue stream where creators (who bring traffic to the site) are often disregarded and/or considered disposable. I don't think there's any evidence to back that claim. [0]: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121211/16152021352/dmca-... [1]: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2807622?hl=en |