YouTube took down a user account, after HBO's copyright claims, only to restore the account later.
YouTube cares about keeping Game of Thrones as fresh as possible. The Alphabet-owned company has shut down a user account, named Frikidoctor, after HBI issued a copyright notice against the channel. Frikidoctor had been posting predictions, which bordered on spoilers, on his channel. According to reports, Frikidoctor’s videos were created from information coming from insider sources and others who have been on-set on the show.
The user recently predicted important moments from the second episode of the current season, two days before the show was aired on HBO, and Hotstar. It’s unclear how HBO’s copyright notice stood, since Frikidoctor’s videos were mostly a person speaking on camera, with no audio or video being plagiarised from other sources. The information, however, was about the show.
This is perhaps why YouTube had to restore his videos on Monday, after he challenged the copyright claim by HBO. In an interview with The Verge, Frikidoctor said, “It is forbidden to talk about what will happen in a show, even if you’re right? Can they claim copyright infringement for a video with just spoken word about a topic?”
The fact that YouTube suspended Frikodoctor’s account, shows that the service doesn’t really verify copyright claims before taking action. Frikodoctor alleged that the policy of “innocent until proven guilty”, doesn’t work on YouTube.
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Prasid Banerjee
Trying to explain technology to my parents. Failing miserably. View Full Profile
