Continued: MAN THE HARPOONS!!! xenutv1 MEGATHREAD

[VictoireFlamel]

STATEMENT FROM YOUTUBE EXECUTIVE:

I JUST SPOKE WITH THE HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS FOR YOUTUBE. AS IN THE ONE PERSON WE SHOULD BE TALKING TO. I'm not going to post his name here because I don't want him to get flooded with calls. The second receptionist I spoke to said that she would take care of me, and OH MY GOD she did.

I spoke with him for about 7 minutes and he told me things on and off the record. He said that he was aware of the situation personally, and was looking into it. He said that there are a lot of reasons why channels are pulled down. He then asked me a bunch of questions, most notably these three:

1) Why is this situation such a big deal? (A genuine concern)
2) What the video was/who owned the rights to it
3) What other videos were on the channel, and were they all owned by the user.

My answers were:
1) The reason it is such a big deal is because there are tons of news organizations both big (like FOX), and small (like no-name blogs), that have mentioned this video over the last couple days and if they plan to air something on this, their fact-checkers will get nowhere because the account has been suspended. He understood fully my argument. I also said that another reason it was a big deal is because this is the first celebrity to have spoken out against Scientology, and it was hosted specifically on this user account, because the account-holder was the one doing the interview.

2) I told him that the interview was conducted by the account-holder (as I said above), and that he owned the rights to it.

3) I told him that all the other videos on the site were either personal videos, or videos that the account-holder himself conducted.

Another thing we discussed was the fact that Mark Bunker was an Emmy award-winning journalist and that it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for him to personally do an interview that would be a terms of service violation.

We discussed a few other things off the record, and as such, I will not report those things. Rest assured, he is working on it.

tl;dr: EPIC WIN.

Also, the reason I was able to get this far is because I essentially wear a press hat, so there you go.

STATEMENT FROM VIACOM:

Now that Company B is out, I can post this info.

I spoke with the appropriate channels at Viacom 3 times today. I called them once, they called me back TWICE. I spoke with two separate people, one was a Gatekeeper and the other was Gatekeeper's Big Boss.

Big Boss Man said this: YouTube is having their own problem with a TOS violation, and it doesn't make sense that Viacom would be involved in this (YES, they said this). I explained that YT is saying that if Viacom would drop their initial DCMA complaint, that YT would reinstate one, or both accounts. I said that this is creating a media fiasco due to the fact that Big Media was counting on links to this media and haven't been able to deliver that. I stressed to Big Boss Man that fact-checkers can't do their jobs. I asked if he could look into this personally and if he could find some way to contact YT and let them know that Viacom has no more beef with this user. He said he would, and asked me for the user-names and user owners of both accounts.

I asked him to contact me when this was completed, and he said he absolutely would call me back after he checked what was going on.

Edit: He also asked for BOTH YouTube accounts, so I trust that he really will look into it.

I called back Mr. Communications from YouTube, but he was out to lunch. All Viacom developments will go here from now on because the other threads are looong.

For those that have been following my other posts and threads, things should be crystal clear now..

XENUTV1: SUGGESTIONS ON WHO TO CONTACT, WHY, AND ANGLES

There seems to be discrepancy, and annoyance, in regards who to contact and why. Since Viacom's name has been involved now, and some are pissed and think that they are the only and correct target, and that time yesterday was wasted. As the person who has contacted them (more than WBM himself), let me say this:

For those that aren't here everyday, and haven't read through 50+ pages of threads, let me summarize, and direct.

YouTube Summary:
YouTube is responsible for their own Terms of Service violations. YouTube blames Viacom for the hang up with reinstated Mark Bunker's account. YouTube says that Viacom must first drop their DCMA complaint, then they can reinstate accounts.
Who I Have Contacted: The highest points of the Communications and Press departments.
Who To Contact: EVERYONE. Word at Google spreads like wildfire. I spoke with someone today who is in a separate department from the Boss I spoke with yesterday, and she KNEW MY NAME, and the whole situation.
TL;DR: Google Talks. Keep it up.
Angle Suggestions: State that you know that Google/Youtube is aware of this. State that Viacom is aware of this. State that this is a freedom of speech violation. Stress that there are TONS of other channels with Viacom/Colbert violations. State that is a weird coincidence.
And most importantly, STATE THAT THE MEDIA COUNTS ON YOUTUBE WORKING IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO REPORT THE NEWS IN SOME CASES.


Viacom Summary:
Viacom owns the rights to the Colbert videos WBM had up on his FIRST profile.
Who I Have Contacted: The tippy top of Press and Legal.
Who To Contact: Communications and Legal
Angle Suggestions: It's important to note that there are two profiles in question, and that the violations occured on a PREVIOUSLY DELETED profile, and not on the current one that was taken down. Viacom scratched their heads at this when I spoke to them, and unofficially thought it was dumb that one was affecting the other. Stress the fact that first profile is no longer a problem. Stress the fact that YouTube is blaming this media fiasco on them. Stress the fact that if they can dig through records, and drop the first complaint, all this will be over.

An ADDENDUM: Those stating that Mark Bunker didn't break TOS rules will fall on deaf ears. According to YouTube, if you have ONE TOS violation that results in a channel takedown, you are not allowed to have another, ever. So from YouTube's point of view, they want to make sure Viacom isn't going to sue them. Point is, he DID have a TOS violation previously, and that is the main point of YouTube's stance. That is just more help for everyone.

ADDENDUM 2: After reading responses, I'll add this: YouTube is the bigger target, still. Viacom came up today only because Mark brought it up in his interview. I never names Viacom and I never named them on purpose, until after the fact. The problem is, some people very loudly (and some not so loudly) stated that all of yesterday was essentially a waste of time because the real target should be Viacom. While I had my own behind-the-scenes reasons for contacting Viacom, others should tread lighter. BOTH TARGETS ARE VALID.

VIACOM WILL BE PISSED at YouTube eventually for this, and that will work in our favor. I would never purport to INSTRUCT people who to contact, but obviously since both companies have been brought up, both companies, with my suggested avenues, are stated in this OP. (/End Addendum 2)

If anyone is confused, PM me.



ADDENDUM ABOUT A DCMA COUNTER FILING:
Mark had this to say through email:
"The counter notification says that "I believe the material does not belong to Viacom and they are lying to you. I put it up legally." But Viacom does own the rights. To lie is to set yourself up with a suit which is why I didn't send a counter notice to begin with."

End of story there, really.... Edit: PERHAPS NOT, STORY DEVELOPING ON THE FAIR USE ANGLE. FORWARD ANY AND ALL SUGGESTIONS TO THE APPROPRIATE CHANNELS.

(*NEW*) YOUTUBE'S CURRENT STANCE WITH MARK BUNKER (*NEW*)
YouTube had THIS to say (direct quote):
"Something to watch out for though is that a company can say "we didn't mean to get an account terminated, we just wanted the content removed, we accept your apology and we think YouTube should reinstate the account-- but we're not retracting our claim."

In order to actually be effective, they have to retract it and they have to tell us. Now, you can agree to remove the content after the claim is retracted and of course that's up to you, but I just want to set appropriate expectations in this regard."

[tehMati]

Sweet

[D...]

Anonymous delivers!

Insta win, just add water.

[spoon]

VictoireFlamel, this is such an epic win that I plan to grow a womb and have your children. All of them.

[anony428]

win= >9000

[captainslug]

HUGE BALLS.
+1 cake for you

[Sargo]

i wuv you

Latest Celebrity Gossip - Hollywood Movie Stars - Moviefone

tomcat split^_^ or is trying too!

kat comeing to new s yorks

yah!!!!

sorry messes up your wins

YOU'VE WON THE GAME

u no get piggy back ride^_^

enjoy

WBM IS ON TORYS ACCOUNT WITH HER PERMISSTION TALKING ABOUT WHATS GOING ON

YouTube - Scientology Cancels XENU TV's YouTube...

WINZ WINZ WINZ WINZ

[kyranon]

Free urinal cakes for all! Just pay $10 shipping!

[exOT8Michael]

Great job Victoireflame.
Caek 4 u.

Longcat just got longer...

[Anon556]

You sir. win the game

[Unlisted]

Gratitude of massive proportions to you VF!

[noitulover]

you have won all the internets for all eternity

[UnderToad]

I love you guys....

[Puddlewhite]

A win, after win, after win, after win, after win, after win.....

[lampshade]

This is so full of win, it feels like my face is going to split in half.

[Theanonymoustipster]

Massive kudos to you for this, and to WBM for quoting Star Wars

[JMac85]

Good to see this is being brought to the attention of the higher ups. Hopefully, this will result in an overhaul of the flag system, so it can't be abused anymore.