I’ve always had my qualms with YouTube about video quality, comment moderation, ease of use, comment moderation, and comment moderation, but what’s got the blogosphere exploding lately is something that I kind of pity rather than hate YouTube for: videos containing copyrighted music are having their audio muted.
This actually isn’t new, just a new option for users hit by an increasingly rabid crackdown by Google’s Video Identification robots. A video that I posted of footage I took at Anthrocon was taken down automatically just because I happened to synchronize the footage with a song that is copyrighted by a gigantic corporation. I was given the option to replace the audio with a different song, which would have killed all my hard work in Final Cut, or I could dispute the claim, either because it was an incorrect match (which it wasn’t) or because it was Fair Use (which it was).
I don’t love YouTube’s handling of Fair Use, though legally the burden is upon the Fair User to justify it, so I suppose taking your video down before allowing you to defend the use is appropriate. That’s how I handled my video, explaining to YouTube’s input box that my video was non-commercial and did not prevent the copyright holder from making a profit. Submitting that dispute got my video replaced quite punctually, but when I clicked that Submit button, I saw a single line that told the story of who the true villain is here: “Your claim has been submitted to WMG.” Warner Music Group.
Continue reading ‘Warner Music Mutes YouTube, So Blame Them Instead’
Jiggle Physics On the iPhone Are Only Acceptable If Used On Real Boobs
Some time ago there was an app submitted to the iPhone App Store called iBoobs. This was an application which displayed a pair of 3D boobs (wearing a bra) and read accelerometer data. Essentially this means that every time you moved or shook your iPhone, the boobs would jiggle. How funny. But as you can maybe see from the link if the German translation is comprehensible, the app was not approved by Apple because “Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.”
But yesterday Apple apparently did approve something called Wobble. It’s an application that allows you to add “wobble regions” to photographs. These regions will jiggle when you shake your iPhone. (Hint: You put them on boobies!!!!)
Seems Apple’s being their hypocritical selves again. After the jump, videos explaining why…
Continue reading ‘Jiggle Physics On the iPhone Are Only Acceptable If Used On Real Boobs’