Beware of pirate squirrels (Skill Zone News, 28-Apr-2011)
Beware of pirate squirrels
Google takes copyright very seriously, and to show us just how seriously that is, it has this month given us "Google Copyright School" in the shape of a video on YouTube featuring Russell the Pirate Squirrel.
The video explains how ripping off someone's video and uploading it to YouTube is a copyright infringement, it warns that you could get sued and "Lose your booty, or even worse, lose your YouTube account," although given how easy it is to create anonymous accounts, I don't see that as much of a deterrent. There are also parts of the video where it whizzes through the small print of copyright at high speed which gives the impression that its just a lot of that tedious legalese, and not really something you are expected to understand or pay any attention to.
You might find it strange that YouTube, which creates almost no content itself, has set itself up as an educator on intellectual property. Google takes the attitude that if you, the copyright holder, finds your material illegally uploaded to YouTube then it is your responsibility to notify Google and have it removed, not Google's to stop it being uploaded in the first place, nor to stop it being uploaded again the following day. Google claims it is merely a conduit for sharing videos, and with the thousands of videos uploaded to YouTube each day, it couldn't possibly be expected to review them all and ensure they are all original works. To do so, they argue, would be too expensive. Imagine the anarchy if all businesses could use that argument, that to do things properly and responsibly would not be profitable.
With all of Google's technology and software ingenuity, if it really wanted to stop people from uploading copyrighted material to YouTube then I'm sure it could come up with something more effective than a cartoon squirrel.
About SKILLZONE News This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.