Thursday, September 12, 2013

To the proper officer of YouTube - 12 September 2013

To the proper officer of YouTube

My Copyright Notices page indicates that my disputes of Content ID matches in respect of my videos "Will The Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up (feat. Eminem)" ("the 2012 US Presidential Election video") and "Star Wars - The Election Edition" ("the 2007 Australian Federal Election video") have been rejected.  It further indicates that the 2007 Australian Federal Election video is unavailable in some countries as a result.

It appears that an entity referred to as "UMG" claims to administer a sound recording used in the 2012 US Presidential Election video and that an entity referred to as "SME" claims to administer a sound recording used in the 2007 Australian Federal Election video.  No reasons have been given for their apparent rejection of my disputes.  Those disputes were made on the basis that the audio used in each video was used for the purposes of parody and of making satirical political comment on the 2012 US Presidential Election and the 2007 Australian Federal election respectively.  As such the use constituted fair use or fair dealing under US, Australian and other similar copyright laws.

Would you please identify the exact legal entities designated by "UMG" and "SME".  Would you also please provide me with the contact details, if they are available to you, of the person or persons at each of those entities responsible for the rejection of my Content ID disputes.

My Copyright Notices page further indicates that I am currently not eligible to appeal the rejection of each of the disputes.  Would you please explain to me why this is the case.  I have been a YouTube user since February 2007.  I am a YouTube Partner.  My videos have been viewed over 27 million times and have frequently been featured on official YouTube accounts and pages.  Many of my videos use otherwise copyrighted content for the purpose of parody and of making satirical political comment.  I have repeatedly received unwarranted and vexatious Content ID matches and DMCA notices in respect of these videos.

I very much appreciate the service provided by YouTube and look forward to your response.

Kind regards

Hugh Atkin
youtube.com/hmatkin

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