Okay guys, we can start to make a big change here but we have less than a day to do it, so listen up!
Yesterday Fight For The Future informed us that the Copyright Office is looking for feedback on the DMCA.
Whether or not it has helped or harmed the internet as a whole.
This took us by surprise apparently it has flown right under the radar
as right now if you look at the comments there's only 80 there's barely any there at all.
This is our chance to let the government know what's been going on with Fair Use
and, strangely enough, the date that they are going to cut it off and not let you do the comments anymore and stuff
is April 1st. April Fools day.
So I have to emphasize- this is not a April Fools joke. Cross my heart- everything- this is for real!
This is something every Youtube Creator, every viewer, just anyone that's on the internet, needs to comment on and there's not a lot of time to do it.
With "Where's the Fair Use?" so many people have verbalized how much the DMCA is being abused with these false claims.
Everybody has either made a video, or knows somebody that's made a video that, if it went to court, it'd be deemed Fair Use.
But it was taken down anyway.
This is your chance to let Washington know, what's going on and how incredibly dated this process is.
The DMCA was signed into law on October 28th, 1998.
It was created to protect Copyright holders rights as well as websites who host content.
If a website gets a DMCA take down, they must take down the content related to the DMCA.
Here's the problem- it hasn't been updated to account for today's internet.
Back in 1998 the internet was far different. Many big sites were created and many of them failed.
We backed up our data on floppy disks and we now use the cloud.
Many of us use the internet for all our entertainment and the DMCA was written for the 1998 internet.
one of which, a site like Youtube was nothing more than a fantasy.
News stations aren't the only ones who can break news now- a average person with a cellphone can break the news before they can.
The internet has changed so much in those 18 years, yet one of the major laws around it has become a fossil.
The DMCA fails to account for the internet of today.
Instead of being used to protect the content creators that you watch and love, it's now being used to harass and even destroy those content creators.
This is a chance for us to band together and protect the internet that we love, and bring it to the one place that can protect it as a whole.
Until we get strict penalties in place for false DMCA takedowns- Youtube is always going to be under attack. And so will the internet.
This is our chance to bring the fight out of Youtube and into Washington, DC.
If you look below, Fight For the Future has created a website so that you can send comments to the government right now.
In fact- it needs to be right now!
This page contains a form letter that you can edit to explain how the DMCA has affected you.
Mention how people file claims on content that they don't even own.
Mention that DMCA's are being used to inflict harm on individual creators and they are being used to stifle free speech.
Mention how people just talking on camera, with no Copyright footage or music are being taken down.
Mention how some companies believe they create the law.
Mention that DMCA's are being used without factoring in fair use.
Mention how DMCA's are being sent in by shell companies to shield the company sending the take downs.
Mention how people use them as threats
Mention that videos are getting hit multiple times even after they're cleared.
If you're a creator, mention how your DMCA take down resulted in lost revenue and harassment.
This was not our original planned next move for "Where's the Fair Use?" but it is incredibly important.
We have a short amount of time to really make our voices heard here.
So definitely, send a comment, call, send them emails. And let them know that this needs to be fixed.
The battle we are about to embark on is not going to be a short one. But we're in it for the long haul.
We know that this is going to require a lot more calls to action.
But this needs to be done to protect content on the internet. All of our content.
Whether you're trying to just to upload pictures or entertain someone- we're all at risk.
This has been shown by all the invalid take downs in the past.
While the current entertainment industry's have the money, we have the numbers.
The internet defeated SOPA, the Internet defeated PIPA.
Lets put an end to these type of bills and and secure the internet for the present and the future.
Let's begin the process to fix Copyright law and bring it into the 21st century.
We're witnessing a cultural shift in entertainment that was last seen by our grandparents and our great-grandparents.
The last time this happened was in the 1950's.
The internet through our internet-enabled devices will become the norm for watching content as more and more people abandon cable and satellite.
We need to make sure that the industry that has such a hard time accepting new technology can't continue it's reign of exorbitant prices and anti competitive practices.
We generally don't ask people to share our videos, but with this, we really need your to share with as many people as you can and as quickly as you can.
Links for everything we talked about are below. Definitely check them out.
This is our chance to finally start fixing Youtube.
Comment. Call. And email. We only have until 11:59pm, EST, on April 1st. That's not much time. Go, make your voice heard.