PUBLIC.RESOURCE.ORG ~ A Nonprofit Corporation

Public Works for a Better Government


August 22, 2015
Mr. Lance Kavanaugh

Director, Legal

YouTube, Inc.

901 Cherry Avenue

San Bruno, CA 94066
Dear Lance:
At 10:46 AM Pacific Time on Friday, I received a Copyright Takedown Notification for
a video I had posted (see Attachment 1). The takedown was issued by the WGBH
Educational Foundation and it was for the video “Energy - The American
Experience.” You can see this video in the following locations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FZnwFcHonk

https://archive.org/details/gov.ntis.ava06181vnb1
The video is a 1976 production by the Department of Energy’s Energy Research and
Development Administration. After looking over the video carefully, I determined
that there is no WGBH involvement whatsoever in this government film.
Once I received the copyright takedown notification, I had to go through “copyright
school” before being able to gain access to my account on YouTube. This involved a
learning module, followed by an exam, which I passed. I promptly filed a counternotification with YouTube. As a result of the copyright strike, my account was
penalized for 6 months with reduced functionality.
Meanwhile, I tried to reach out to WGBH using email and social media. None of their
senior management posts any contact information, and those people I do know at
WGBH had vacation messages set on their email. At 11:48 AM I reached out to you ,
and at 2:18 PM, I received a notification from YouTube indicating the video had been
temporarily restored because “the complaint lacks one or more legally-required
elements of a copyright takedown notice, so we asked the requesting party to
provide additional information to complete their notice.” Thank you for doing that.
Meanwhile, I finally reached the WGBH legal department. Susan L. Kantrowitz,
General Counsel, wrote to me that “It is highly unusual for Amex to be in a title and
not be one of our shows” and they would “address it on Monday.” Eric Brass,
Corporate Counsel, wrote that “the take down request very well may have been an
error, but given that it is late on a Friday afternoon in August,  I may not be able to
get back to you (or YouTube) until Monday.” He then wrote me back and indicated
that while perhaps my YouTube account was important, this “particular film” was

carl@media.org

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 YOUTUBE LEGAL DIRECTOR, PAGE 2

certainly not. I spoke to him on the phone and he repeated that no harm had been
done, but and that after he completed his investigation he would,“follow up with
something in writing that might be helpful for you if a question arises down the road
about the take down.”
I want to stress that the timing of this takedown was not mine, it was instigated by
WGBH and it was done deliberately as a formal legal action. Mr. Brass seemed quite
peeved that I was upset, even though I was just minding my own business on the
Internet when some hooligans from Boston came over and smacked me for no reason
at all, then left for a weekend at the Cape.
The process of creating a copyright strike is not a casual one.WGBH had to go
through several screens to identify the video, fill out their contact information, and
checked numerous boxes indicating that they understood this was the beginning of a
legal process, then signed a statement indicating that all statements were true and
that they were in fact the true and correct owners of that film or portions of that film.
In order to respond to that legal accusation, I had to go through a similar process of
swearing under oath and accepting a court’s jurisdiction for my counter-claim.
I believe that incorrectly posting a video that is under copyright is in fact worthy of a
copyright strike. However, I think the opposite of that should be true.WGBH
committed a copyright foul and should be prohibited from having the capability to
take another user’s films down for a six-month period. If they commit 3 copyright
fouls, their account should be revoked.WGBH personnel should be required to go to
copyright school so that they fully understand their responsibilities under the law.
Given the blithe and uncaring attitude of WGBH legal staff, they should also be
required to undergo copyright school. Their blase attitude was not impressive, and I
can just imagine the reaction of WGBH if somebody had improperly taken down one
of their media properties would not have been nearly so casual.
Thank you again for your quick action restoring my video on a temporary basis. I do
hope that you are able to get WGBH to either justify their allegations or quickly move
to remove the copyright strike against my account.
Sincerely,

Carl Malamud

President & Founder

Public.Resource.Org

 From:
Subject:
Date:
To:

YouTube no_reply@youtube.com
[Copyright takedown notice] Your video has been taken down from YouTube: Energy - The American Experience
August 21, 2015 at 10:46 AM
PublicResourceOrg publicresourceo-0767@pages.plusgoogle.com

Hi PublicResourceOrg:
Due to a copyright takedown notice that we received, we had to take down
your video from YouTube:
Video title: Energy - The American Experience
Video url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FZnwFcHonk
Takedown issued by: WGBH Educational Foundation
This means that your video can no longer be played on YouTube, and you
may have lost access to some features of YouTube.
You received a copyright strike
You now have 1 copyright strike. Getting multiple copyright strikes can
lead to the termination of your account and the removal of all your videos.
To avoid that from happening, please don’t upload videos that contain
copyrighted content that you aren’t allowed to use.
Why this can happen
One or more of your videos contained copyrighted content.
Copyright owners can choose to take down videos that contain their
content.
View details

What to do next
If you believe you're not at fault, you can try to appeal this takedown
by submitting a counter notification. Keep in mind that there may be
severe legal consequences for submitting a counter notification with
false information.
You can also contact the party that removed your video and ask
them to retract their takedown.

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