I always wondered about the people that uploaded Disney Sofia the First episodes in dubbed chipmunk voices that my daughter would watch on YouTube, who would even bother to do such a thing? After a little investigation I found out their chipmunk voice dubbing was done to avoid the highly criticized ContentID robot copyright police employed by YouTube.
ContentID was responsible for automatically blocking Rand Paul's video because it played a song in the background "Shuttin' Detroit Down" by John Rich, the rights of which are owned by Warner Music Group. The way ContentID works is first the copyright holder submits to YouTube their copyrighted audio, video, or gaming material. ContentID scans the database of YouTube videos to find matching audio or video and the copyright owner can create settings whether they want the video automatically blocked, muted, or to leave the video and monetize it. In this situation Warner chose to block the video.
The problem with ContentID is that it's not perfect and has been known to indiscriminately take down videos that have no infringing content whatsoever such as videos uploaded by licensees, through fair use, or public domain. Many YouTube account holders had their videos taken down that don't even sound similar to the material it supposedly infringes. The claim dispute process can take a month or more to resolve, which is especially harmful to the many people that depend on their videos for their livelihood. To deepen the wound, not only are the videos blocked but funds from the monetized videos are taken away from the content holder and diverted to the claim holder. This guilty until proven innocent method means huge headaches for account holders that did nothing wrong in reality.
Licensees who have the right to public performance of copyrighted works also see their videos automatically taken down by the ravenous ContentID monster. Could this be the case with Rand Paul?...... I mean I am hoping a hopeful future president would license the copyrighted music he planned on using in his public performance.
Let's face it YouTube has a monopoly on the infinitely massive video hosting realm and shows no signs of slowing down, more the reason to employ fair and just procedures to deal with copyright infringement. The freedom loving Google/YouTube conglomerate has unleashed this ContentID beast which shoots first and asks questions last. The use of ContentID is all in all contrary to the aims of copyright law which was formed to foster the growth of the arts, not trample all over it.
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