Copyright infringement claim: What do I do?

[kanungoparth]

In 2010, I had interviewed a famous Indian poet using a friend's camera. The video was focused on him and only contains my and my friend's voice. I uploaded the video in 2011 and edited it to show our names and university name (where we interviewed him) in the credits.

The video stood there for 3 years. Many people watched it and commented and liked it.

Last week, suddenly some company claimed a copyright infringement and Youtube took it down. I want to tell my story to Youtube, but could not find a proper support email address for my query. Youtube says that I can file counter notification but that will be treated as a legal statement and can be used in court. I tried reaching out to the company which had filed the copyright infringement but got no response.

My concern is - even after I have done nothing wrong, I don't want to get involved in legal hassles and want a way to resolve this and reinstate my videos.

Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxJ1ZtPYsVA

[greenyoda]

The infringement claim is probably due to an error made by an automated scanning tool. If you file a counter notification stating that you are the copyright holder (the video is your own work, you've never assigned the copyright to anybody else), the other party will have to prove that they own the copyright, which they can't. It's doubtful that it will ever end up in court - a human will review the video, determine the infringement claim was erroneous, and withdraw the claim (probably without offering any apology).

[DonCarlitos]

What greenyoda said is accurate. Don't panic, fight. You should immediately file an assertive response. That's what I did in a similar situation on YouTube not long ago. It only took a day or so for the infringement claim to be dismissed and my video re-instated. Speak up now.