YouTomb tracks the afterlife of nixed YouTube videos

Free Culture crusaders at MIT have started YouTomb, which scans YouTube's most popular videos and keeps track of the ones that are taken down, either by copyright holders, YouTube, or the user.  More interesting than specific videos that have been taken down is the list YouTomb has generated of who's taking down the most videos, and why.  Among the most active media companies are TV TOKYO, Viacom Inc., Warner Bros., World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., Freemantle Media (makers of "American Idol") and NetResult (a sports copyright enforcer). 

Assuming YouTomb isn't missing too many takedowns, it's striking how infrequently videos are removed -- at this point, only a couple per hour.   As YouTube rolls out tools for copyright owners to guard their content, that number is certain to go up -- possibly a whole lot.

According to their statistics, users as a group take down more of their own videos than any media company, with almost 6,000 submitters having pulled the plug on a video after it has become popular.  These users could be a mix of 'regular' folk and corporations, so it's hard to get a read on why people generally take down their own stuff, but it's certainly a good question.

(via NewTeeVee)

Comments

[alan haynes]

GOOD

[Nala Smithee]

It's terribly important that the DMCA takedown process be transparent. When misused, it can serve the purpose of chilling free speech and silencing criticism. Unwarranted complaints from entertainment companies are just the tip of the iceberg. Recently, Scientology has been waging a war against its critics on YouTube by filing frivolous takedowns. There have been many victims -- most notably long-time critic Mark Bunker (google "mark bunker xenutv1" for the story).

DMCA takedowns are not fundamentally different from other forms of bullied speech suppression. A 15-year-old UK protester recently experienced this in real life when the London Police took away his sign that claimed Scientology was a "cult," and they gave him a court summons. The UK higher-ups reversed this decision today, determining that the complaints from Scientology were unfounded (google "epic nose guy" for the story).

This is all to say that YouTomb is a tremendously valuable site and service. I have watched several Scientology-related takedowns pop up on the site. Hopefully the site creators can make it even more easy to search and index this information so that transparency can be further enhanced.

[Anonymous]

Thank you to the folks at MIT Free Culture. The example of the Youtube's response to the so-called church of scientology is a good one. The cult has been a master manipulator in attempting to control public opinion. Shame on Youtube for their (ALLEGED) collusion. IMHO