Copyright strike and takedown, My Story

LytaneVS

LytaneVS

Active Member
I have a YouTube channel and on it I like to do some reviews on shows, games and movies and as such I get hit with copyright all of the time. As I am doing a critique I am covered under Fair Use, I edit the footage and I rarely use sound from them, I just use the visuals to show what I am talking about.
Recently I uploaded a video doing a review on Prison Break and I get hit with copyright from Fox, I disputed it saying "Fair Use" and they released the video saying it was alright. Then a few days later the video was taken down by Fox and I was issued a strike against my name under "Copyright Infringment" which is utter b******t.

I should be covered under Fair Use and the fact that Fox released the video before taking it down is just so stupid. What can I do about it? I am a very small YouTuber and don't really know how to fight this. I sent my appeal to Fox, which is f*****g stupid because there is like a 300 character limit on the appeal. How can you adequately defend yourself with such a low character limit?
I wrote an crummy argument and sent it off but I fear nothing is going to happen with it. Is there anything else I can do? Why is there no human interaction on the YouTube platform for me to talk to other than this website? I feel as though it is very unfair and should be fixed. Other, more popular, YouTubers have gone through this same thing and sometimes nothing was done about it.

This is my story, any help would be appreciated
 
I am sorry I saw this so late.

I'm even more sorry to have to tell you that the Fair Use Doctrine, while recognized by YouTube in certain circumstances, can only truly be tested in a court of law. There are also four considerations any judge will use in determining if your use of copyrighted material was indeed Fair Use as far as Copyright Law is concerned. Those factors are as follows:

1. Commercial, or non-commercial educational usage? Non-commercial will weigh more in your Fair Use favour.

2. The amount of the copyrighted work used in your derivative. If you only use a small portion, the law will look more favourably upon your claim than if you use eiher large amounts or nearly the entire work in question.

3. The nature of the original copyrighted work itself.

4. The effect your work will have on the market or value of the original work.

If your review was a negative one, Fox's legal department may well have seen your video as damaging to the potential viewer market for Prison Break. And as you didn't file your dispute in a court of law, Fox, being a major media producer and content owner had every right to take your video down if it wanted to. In other words, if you are not in a court of law, you can't rely on Fair Use as a defence.
 
That's fine, at least someone did see it and that's what matters.

While I did monetize the episode, I only did it due to YouTube's algorithm saying that if you monetize something it's more likely to be recommended for others so while it is "commercial" it really doesn't have to be so I think that might be fine. So I used about 6:30min of a 22:30min long video of footage which works out to be just over a quarter of the video. While that may seem like a lot I have seen other reviews that show nothing but what they are reviewing and they can get away with it.
As it's a TV Show I don't know how 3 will react to my particular circumstance.
As for 4 my review is just that, a review, so I have both positive and negative things to say. I do talk bad about one character and how the show ended but have many good points as well and in the end gave a glowing recommendation to the show. Sounds like Fox didn't want me complaining about the show, it was taken down manually as well so that means someone from Fox looked at the video (even for a second) and took it down.

It sucks that I don't have any grounds unless I actually went to a court of law and I know that in my appeal that I really have no ground to stand on and Fox has literally ALL of the power which is why even though I refuted the strike I'm 99% certain they will just say NOPE again.
 
You are not the worse case on this my friend. If you want to see a classic example of Fair Use failing in a court of law, Google "Star Trek Anaxar Copyright Lawsuit". This is a recent Fair Use decision which has now changed the face of the Fan Fiction Production Process and Market for Star Trek related fan films.
 
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