Where do videos go when they "die" or are booted off YouTube for copyright infringement?
Meet YouTomb.
Created by a group of MIT students, the virtual video graveyard combs through Google's data and archives information about clips that have been removed from YouTube.
Banned clips aren't available for viewing or download on YouTomb -- that's not the purpose of the site, says Dean Jansen, one of project creators.
"We're not interested in bootlegged videos of [anime show] Naruto that got taken down," said Jansen in a phone interview Tuesday. "It's about fair use, and remixes or performances forced off YouTube."
YouTube -- which has run into controversy for pulling guitar parodies and satirical music videos due to copyright claims -- recently launched a filtering service that identifies possible copyright violations and lets rights-holders decide if they want to flag videos for removal.
Jansen says the site's opaque policies spurred the YouTomb project.
"We aren't trying to be antagonistic at all," said Jansen. "We understand YouTube has a business to run. But at the same time, we're not sure where it ends."
Alongside a screenshot of each clip deemed in violation, YouTomb lets users see who posted the offending video, how many views it got before being pulled, when it was removed and by whom (for instance at the request of the user, a media company or third-party).
YouTomb, which launched about two months ago, is currently monitoring close to a quarter-million videos, and Jansen says the team is eager to expand its scope. Currently, the site only monitors popular YouTube videos, but Jansen hopes to span as many YouTube data sets as possible.
YouTomb is considering offering code to bloggers to use when embedding YouTube videos. That way, when videos were taken down, users could see stats and data instead of a simple error message.
YouTube representatives did not offer comment by press time, but according to Jansen, who claims to have several friends at
Google's video site, the two organizations have a "friendly disposition" toward one another.
"We aren't going to unearth the magic algorithm that Google is using
[to filter possible copyright infringements]," said Jansen. "But we can shed some light on what YouTube is doing."
[via Waxy.org]
See also:
- LisaNova Battles Boob Shots on YouTube -- With Boob Shots
- Hitler Remixes Are Big -- On YouTube
- Banned From YouTube: Parody Guitar Videos
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