cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/103227
Two men have been indicted by a grand jury for running a massive YouTube Content ID scam that netted the pair more than $20m. Webster Batista Fernandez and Jose Teran managed to convince a YouTube partner that the pair owned the rights to 50,000+ tracks and then illegally monetized user uploads over a period of four years.
YouTube previously said that it paid $5.5 billion in ad revenue to rightsholders from content claimed and monetized through Content ID but the system doesn’t always work exactly as planned. Over the years, countless YouTube users have complained that their videos have been claimed and monetized by entities that apparently have no right to do so but, fearful of what a complaint might do to the status of their accounts, many opted to withdraw from battles they feared they might lose.
Hello, not sure if appropriate to crosspost here. To me how unfair/broken the current copyright system is is very relevant to libre culture so i’m happy to have “copyright madness” posts around here, but if not appropriate don’t hesitate to remove it! (but please add an explicit rule about it in the sidebar :))