Julianna Yau’s blog

It’s probably overdue, but I have been considering delving into the use of video. I toyed with the idea a while back (privately, so there isn’t a blog posting) for my sculptures to give a better experience of my work. More recently, I’ve been thinking of using video in my future review of my XO laptop (when it arrives). So, in preparation, I have purchased a much-needed new camera which also has a video feature with audio. My current camera is about four years old and, although sufficient, the quality of the photos of my sculptures could probably be improved by newer technology.

Video hosting will be a bigger challenge. I started my research with YouTube because it’s the easiest starting point. After going through their FAQ section, I was surprised to find that 14 of the 17 FAQ items about copyright were targeted at avoiding copyright infringement, one was for users wanting to prevent moral rights, one was to address the possibility of “notice & takedown” abuse, one was to explain “notice and takedown” / “counternotice and putback” and none explain the copyright of works being uploaded by users (assuming that they were created by the users). For the latter, I had to go to their Terms of Use page.

Although it is useful for YouTube to attempt to provide so much information on what qualifies and doesn’t qualify as copyright infringement in an environment where creative reuse (and copyrighted materials in the background) often occurs, the Copyright FAQ section for YouTube is one-sided, even from a creator’s perspective. Am I to believe that creators don’t have questions about the copyright of the videos that they may submit to YouTube or that their TOU page answers all these questions easily? Or that YouTube’s FAQ entry on the different types of accounts answers all the questions directors, musicians, comedians and other creators have on the use of their accounts professionally?

There doesn’t seem to be an easy way to ask further questions about YouTube’s service. I was not able to get a link to contact their help desk until I provided feedback on an existing FAQ entry–not useful if the question I have doesn’t exist (in my case, I want to know how YouTube can validate the content I submitted is mine… some sort of administrative system for authenticating my work so users know it’s really mine). When following the link, I am given the following category options: “Report a bug”, “Report abuse”, “Report copyright issues” and “Suggest a feature”. There is no option for asking a question about the service. Out of curiosity, I clicked each one of the options and was finally given the option to submit a General Policy Inquiry after clicking on Report Abuse.

I am then taken to four FAQ items:

• How does YouTube handle inappropriate content? ›
• How can I keep YouTube a safe place? ›
• Why was my video taken down? ›
• How can I make sure that my videos don’t get removed? ›

So I clicked on the last one, which sort of has to do with my question. At this point, YouTube tells me:

All videos on YouTube must comply with our Terms of Use. For further information, please see our Community Guidelines (http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines) and Copyright Tips (http://www.youtube.com/t/howto_copyright).

If this didn’t help, please choose another option on the left or contact us.

At this point, I decide to contact them.

And I am asked for, among other things, a YouTube username. This is quite puzzling, considering that the question could be with regards to a policy item which a potential user wants to resolve before creating an account. Maybe I’m the only one who is cautious enough to not want to create an account before I have a complete understanding of and agree with their Terms of Use.

Oh, and the Issue is also required, giving me the options of “My video was incorrectly restricted”, “My video was incorrectly removed”, “Commercial use of YouTube”, “My video was copied”, “General site issue” and “I’m reporting a user”. If my question was for the potential use of YouTube for my sculptural work, I suppose I would select “Commercial use of YouTube”. But what if the question was for both that and the potential use of YouTube for my reviews of the XO laptop? Would I select “General site issue” because the reviews would not be for commercial use?

I’m probably way overthinking it, but I’m going to keep looking for another video hosting service. I don’t want to have to go through this excersize every time I have a question for YouTube.