Censorship, false strikes and political correctness makes up the post today.

FAT BOTTOMED GIRLS

The lyrics “fat bottomed” and “big fat fatty” and “Oh, won’t you take me home tonight” are deemed to be inappropriate for a Queen’s Greatest Hits package and songbook aimed at children.

What’s next.

A Motley Crue or AC/DC Children’s song book.

If people want to dumb down lyrics and make them politically correct they should let shows like “The Voice” do it.

DRAGONFORCE

It’s the Wild West when it comes to Content ID on YouTube. An unknown internet user claimed the song “Valley Of The Damned” from Dragonforce as their own and YouTube allowed em.

Because there are no human checks.

Since Dragonforce disagreed with the decision by Content ID, they filled in a form disputing the decision.

But this is where it gets stupid.

You would think that the dispute would go to someone (preferably a human) at YouTube.

However, the counter claim from Dragonforce is sent directly to the person who sent the false strike and who YouTube now believes owns the supposed copyright.

And it’s this person who has the final decision in the matter unless legal action is pursued.

If the person who sent the false strike denies Dragonforce’s claim, the Dragonforce channel receives a strike. If the channel receives three strikes, it is removed from the platform.

So Dragonforce went back and forth for a week over the false strike and finally some common sense prevailed.

CONTENT ID

Content ID was created by Google to appease the labels and various movie studios to take videos offline. It was then enhanced to give the labels and movie studios an option to monetize the uploads from other users.

The labels and studios keep complaining about Content ID but have done nothing to innovate an alternative.

Google now posts a transparency report on the Content ID system.

Rightsholders claimed more than 826 million videos on YouTube from July to December 2022. This is the highest figure since YouTube started reporting these figures and it led to $1.5B in revenue paid to the rights-holders.

All up, $9 billion in ‘claimed’ revenue was paid out to copyright holders since Content ID launched.

SCAMMERS

The downside is scammers. As this article from Torrentfreak states;

Two men set up a company to find and claim unmonetized music. Through a third-party partner with access to the Content ID system, the pair generated over $24 million in revenue from YouTube by falsely claiming ownership.

The abuse didn’t go unnoticed and the repercussions were severe.

In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted the duo and last week the first defendant was sentenced to more than five years in prison.

It’s unregulated and there will always be criminals. It’s a perfect match.