Comment by alanlamm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by alanlamm | Hacker News Reader

I regularly see a number of videos of clearly copyrighted content that have been up for years, with several million views, for fairly mainstream search terms and that would be relatively easy to filter algorythmically (real example - via the characteristic sound & image of the HBO intro in a pirated tv episode). Hard to look at that and believe that Google is doing everything it can to bring them down. That they reject copyright violation reports that come from anyone other than the actual rightsholders (sure, they’d have to make sure someone is not reporting by mistake - it is not a perfect, but still a valuable signal, and if they really wanted to they could encourage it) is further evidence. Further, where these specific videos are not monetized via ads, they bring traffic to YT which is then monetized in other videos, therefore this pirated content is being used commercially, even if indirectly. Like many here I’m no fan of copyright law, but that is no excuse for a multi-billion listed company to make a fortune deliberately flaunting it and then play coy.

I'm not following. By your example, HBO content is being shared and Content ID can trivially determine it's HBO content. Do you have evidence that HBO wants those videos gone, but isn't capable of filing the request? Isn't it just more likely they are getting royalties instead?

No, I don’t have evidence. But I find it unlikely that HBO wants grainy versions of full TV episodes (eg filmed from a VHS recording playing on a TV) on the page of some random YT uploader (not an HBO page or influencer or etc) even if somehow in exchange for tiny CPM royalties. That is only one of several examples I have seen. Perhaps in the case of HBO they could be doing a better job given their size & resources, but for smaller creators it would be a challenge and why should the burden be on them anyway?

Can you link to one of these videos filmed from a VHS recording playing on a TV which has several million views?

Individually they don't get million views as beyond a certain view count youtube will flag and remove.

However I have seen plenty of shows get constantly reuploaded with new accounts. They usually crop or put some padding animation etc to get through content ID. With HBO' content you can search for example John Oliver's non free segments which are not available on the official channel

Right, but that's not what alanlamm was talking about. The claim was that there were videos with millions of views that were trivially detectable, and that Google simply didn't care.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpmOEfgOG-6uC7Y45UI1V...

First result for "HBO movie".

So a bunch of twenty year old movies (not actually by HBO for the most part, but whatever) that probably didn't sell even at the time.

My guess is that those companies didn't even bother to submit them to Content-ID, considering that Google had no problem detecting a bunch of copyright songs in those movies, for which they're paying royalties.

If submitting stuff to Content-ID is the "challenge" that alanlamm was talking about, then fine, color me unconcerned.

It's trivial to find obviously pirated content, and Google does not care (since it generates views). Being legally forced to react to complaints, and HBO not caring, are each separate from that. Which, admittedly, isn't what the original claim was, that HBO probably cares but that Google doesn't react. But Google doesn't care.

1yo Brazilian full feature length film that had a cinema release. 52k views - example of a professional but small creator being pirated. https://youtu.be/ZvQljiVg-xU

Another Brazilian feature film about 6yo - 3.4M views on a profile whose name translates to “watch films online”, with a FOX intro at the beginning. https://youtu.be/r8KGMyfXXHo

1h old Showtime comedy special taken from TV, 1M views - https://youtu.be/Wo27OxaEB3w

If this is above board, what am I missing?

How do you know the copy-write holder has not claimed the revenue for that video? Taking the video down is only one of the options for copy-write holders.

Good luck with filtering algorithmically. There was a recent stupidity that Sony was claiming all to rights, to all performances of the work of long dead, famous composers. Now if they got hit with a few billion bucks for such blatant nonsense this thing might work... or just have little guys publish their own, decent laws about fair use and no Internet behemoths getting in the way.

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