YouTube & Copyright: A Lie on Two Levels

Jeff Atwood is taking YouTube to task for its wink-wink, nudge-nudge approach to uploading copyrighted video clips.

It's a valid point, and I especially like his quip that "by YouTube's own rules, YouTube cannot exist." But YouTube's copyright tips also qualify as a "big copyright lie" in another sense: they seriously downplay the importance of fair use.

Atwood dives into the fair use argument at the bottom of his post, and he's right that much of what gets uploaded to YouTube would fail any reasonable application of the fair use doctrine.

But YouTube wouldn't seem nearly so disingenuous if it provided users with a detailed, aggressive explanation of how fair use works -- and hammered on its importance, the way parent company Google is doing via the CCIA's Defend Fair Use initiative.

The current approach -- sheepishly saying "yes, fair use exists, but it's complicated and good very well get you sued," while still allowing clearly copyrighted material to go up -- does more than just open YouTube to critiques like Atwood's. It forfeits a valuable opportunity to educate people on the purpose and limits of copyright.

And that sort of education is vital -- to roll back DMCA excesses, and to spark more YouTube videos that get beyond ripping off "Daily Show" clips.