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#copyright#contentid#dmca

YouTube's copyright system isn't broken. The world's is.

Tom Scott

6.7M subscribers • 28 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 13 people: 13 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2020 to 2024.
  • Presented by Tom Scott
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

8.9M views6 years ago13 recommendations

Careers and interviewsThe tech industry

Tom Scott explains how YouTube's Content ID system works as a practical workaround for an outdated global copyright law.

No copyright infringement intended. | Watch Money, my new Nebula Original series, when you join CuriosityStream for only $2.99/month: curiositystream.com/tomscott WRITTEN BY: Tom Scott SCRIPT ASSISTANT: Andrea Marks CAMERA: Jamie Drew CAMERA: Joe Stone AUDIO MIX: Graham Haerther EDITOR: Isla McTear CAPTIONS: Caption+ WITH THANKS TO: 1901 Arts Club The Camera Museum, Soho Evan Edinger The Lexi Cinema, Kensal Green Mandy Celine Abigail Thorn Tim Bunn LEGAL CAMEOS: Leonard French youtube.com/user/ljfrench009 Devin Stone youtube.com/legaleagle QUASI-LEGAL CAMEO: Jay Foreman youtube.com/jayforeman MINECRAFT SEQUENCE: Joel "Smallishbeans" youtube.com/SmallishBeans MUSIC Epidemic Sound Canon in D solo piano recording courtesy of ProstoRecords and Envato Market Canon in D rock recording courtesy of Kora3000 and Envato Market STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY Images used under license from shutterstock.com PRODUCER Reb Day © Pad 26 Limited MMXX Chapters Introduction Chapter 1: The Mess We're In Chapter 2: No Copyright Infringement Intended Chapter 3: Content ID Chapter 4: Where Do We Go From Here Trailer and Sponsorship Credits and Outtakes tomscott.com twitter.com/tomscott instagram.com/tomscottgo

Why it's here

13 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as an exceptionally clear and comprehensive explanation of YouTube's Content ID system and the realities of modern copyright law.

Hokusaion Hacker News • Recommends

On “Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library Harms Authors”

> many unintuitive parts I think a more concrete term for unintuitive is outdated. The use cases for Copyright law were defined a century ago when society and technology was different. It is difficult for current citizens to understand copyright law because has nothing to do with their own day to day experiences and needs. Great video about Copyright by Tom Scott: link to this video Too long didn't see: Copyright is broken needs to be fixed in a way that fits the current situation and needs, but, it is going to be damn hard to do.
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peterkoson Hacker News • Recommends

On “Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms”

> youtube algo's screwing up content creator A slightly different problem, but Tom Scott did an excellent video on the automation of the copyright system on YouTube: link to this video In summary, auto copyright checking solves Most copyright issues, to a degree that no other solution can really provide. And while there are a small (yet very unfair) number of false positives, the benefit that the system as a whole allows far outpaces that downtrend: for YouTube to exist! With regards to fact checking, I'd be more interested to hear how many people who read those kind of "fact flags" actually change their opinion in an easy case (flat earth, climate change, etc.). Honestly, the problem of "true truth" m…
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jimbob45on Hacker News • Recommends

On “A Modest Proposal in the New Age of DMCA Takedown Aggression”

link to this video Tom Scott explains the situation and the solution best. Just shorten copyright to 20 years (instead of life + 70 years). .......that said, we did just strong-arm the world into matching US copyright law and I’m not sure we could do that now even if we wanted to.
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0xTJon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Piano teacher gets copyright claim for Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata [video]”

A really great video (if you're willing to spend the better part of an hour watching it) about this is YouTube's Copyright System Isn't Broken. The World's Is.1 by Tom Scott. 1 link to this video
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Laremereon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Dear Google: Public domain compositions exist”

I recommend the excellent video by Youtuber Tom Scott "YouTube's Copyright System Isn't Broken. The World's Is." link to this video While I agree with the OP in broad strokes (they clearly have the right to post and profit off their performance), I find that the vast majority of comments on Youtube's copyright claim system fail to even acknowledge major aspects of the problem. Perhaps Youtube's practical monopoly does it a disservice here, and it's hard to separate "big self publishing video platform" problems with Youtube specific problems. Without a system like YT currently has, it would get absolutely sued into oblivion by rightful copyright complaints. This is in many ways is a problem of copyright…
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oakesm9on Hacker News • Recommends

On “I got my file from Clearview AI”

Related Tom Scott video link to this video tl;dr ContentID is a workaround for a broken copyright system. It's not perfect, but it's better for everyone than falling back to the default of copyright through court.
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nayukion Hacker News • Recommends

On “Copying is not theft, but censorship is (2012)”

Relevant - Tom Scott explains the copyright situation and YouTube's Content ID: link to this video (42 minutes)
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anonymfuson Hacker News • Recommends

On “With questionable copyright claim, Jay-Z orders deepfake parodies off YouTube”

Yes but an imitation is not necessary and usually a parody. There is a good Tom Scott's video about this distinction and other common misconceptions about copyright: link to this video (42 interesting minutes)
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gfodyon Hacker News • Recommends

On “They're deleting my channel, but they don't know why? [video]”

according to Tom Scott's very informative summary of all things youtube and copyright 1 there are seemingly reasonable alternatives to suddenly shutting down a whole channel - it seems like we're not getting the whole story as to why those were rejected or aren't being considered in this case? 1 link to this video
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ehsankiaon Hacker News • Recommends

On “RIAA’s YouTube-dl takedown ticks off developers and GitHub’s CEO”

Absolutely, especially with all the mess on Twitch recently, and with Youtube for the past few years, it's very clear that DMCA needs to be updated. I do like Tom Scott's comprehensive video on the subject link to this video
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I_Byteon Hacker News • Recommends

On “GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down”

I recommended checking out Tom Scott’s video on DMCA (0). It’s 40 minutes long and rather YouTube centric however it paints a very clear picture as to why these companies are engaging in a seemingly broken practice. It’s not because they want to, it’s because they are legally required to do so. (0) - link to this video
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happytigeron Hacker News • Recommends

On “AI companies required to disclose copyrighted training data under new bill”

The copyright system has been broken for a long time. AI is just making the system’s inadequacy more obvious. Just look at YouTube copyright strike and understand how screwed up the enforcement of a law like this is going to be. Tom Scott did a piece on it that’s worth watching: link to this video
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HaZeuston Hacker News • Recommends

On “Thoughts on Vision Pro”

Always has been. Tom Scott did a great video on copyright 1 - it's long overdue to revamp. 1 - link to this video
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Wingyon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Gameloft took down Marvel's SpiderMan trailer (11M views) with a copyright claim”

YouTube's Copyright System Isn't Broken. The World's Is. link to this video Edit: Oh someone already posted it here, sorry.
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jchwon Hacker News • Mentions

On “YouTube takes down the Ig Nobel show because of a 1914 recording”

…uld ask is “how did we get here?” And the answer to that is that copyright is broken. And if we could fix that, or at least make it less broken, some of these problems would literally disappear. And if you don’t believe me, there’s tons of backup from people more persuasive who have perspectives of being in the direct line of fire. Like Tom Scott: link to this video And yeah YouTube could do better, but all too often you get the perspective that this is all their fault because they could solve it with one easy trick. It’s easy to say that when none of the competition managed…
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sillysaurusxon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Google Play keeps banning the same web browser due to vague DMCA notices”

…to punish the issuer. It’s to file a counter notice. I’ve been through this process against Meta. It sucked, and killed my project’s early momentum. But it was restored within a week or two after we filed. It may seem like this system isn’t fair. It certainly isn’t. But it’s the best we have, because the system was not designed for the modern era. link to this video It’s lucky we even have a recourse like filing a counter notice. I’ve wanted to make a non profit that offers up counter notices as a service. Basically, let people donate, and whenever someone’s project (like this unfortunate web browser) gets issued a DMCA claim, they’d be able to get a counter notice drafted and filed. It’s not cheap to…
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