YouTube Rejection: United Nations Alleges Copyright Violation over Report from Media Video Feed

YouTube pulled my first video over a complaint about a dead terrorist in the footage. I was covering the war in Iraq, hello? Or is war coverage only allowed on YouTube when it is politically correct.

Image of an Afghan refugee from the video that the UN complained about, and YouTube pulled. The UN made the video feed available, then took the time to flag us for violating their copyright. Media beware, the UNHCR is doing a double take.

(SALEM, Ore.) - I can't believe the way YouTube works; perhaps it was always this way, or only the last couple of years, but they are playing God with media content and their research or detective skills in investigating complaints against users like Salem-News.com, are non-existent or severely lacking.

They don't hesitate to issue threats like: "Strike 1" and "Strike 2" to define our "offenses". I've played baseball, there is little question over the position this leaves us in.

This time we're in trouble over a United Nations media feed! I can not tell you as a 20-year journalist, how frustrating this is. The UNIFEED program exists to provide video to media, to help tell the story of the UN, simple as that.

According to the 'About us' page on their Website:

"UNifeed enables news providers to cover important global issues by offering timely broadcast-quality video from throughout the UN system.

"Material is currently available in two formats: web-quality Windows Media and broadcast-quality MPEG-2 PAL and NTSC for broadcast use. All material is also accompanied by shot lists and story synopses.

The video is available free of charge and rights-free. We simply ask you to register and log in to access the broadcast-quality video."

But somebody at the UNHCR office in Switzerland took the time to "drop a dime" and get us into trouble.

Three strikes and you're out.

Perhaps somebody at the UN is operating without sanction and an individual is simply trying to derail our business efforts. We did catch the Air Force trying to hack Salem-News.com once, and figured, hopefully, that it was an individual act and not one performed from a higher level. Getting our 301 videos pulled and having our YouTube account closed would sure be a kick in our gut. We look big and we publish a lot of news, but Salem-News.com is a struggling media company, a pioneer with little revenue but a lot of journalism.

The highlighted blue title is the video feed, still available for media to download and use, but be aware if you do.

The video in question was titled "Afghan Refugees in France". I worked on it for several hours.

We're the poor kid on the block, so I guess that makes us a good target for people who want to exploit the YouTube baseball policy and knock us out of the ballpark.

I have used UN news with full credit for years and years and I have always exercised fairness and I have basically never stepped on their toes. I was an ISAF (International Security Assistance Forces) credentialed journalist when I covered the war in Afghanistan. I have never done anything to get on the bad side of this group, so what gives?

The specific agency that flagged our public feed video on YouTube as a copyright violation is the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR.

According to the 'About us' page on their Website:

"The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. It also has a mandate to help stateless people."

That sounds really great, but where is the part about proprietary rights for video that is clearly stated to be for public use? Maybe somebody just wanted to prevent this report from being seen because it told the story of how crappy France is treating these victims of war. Yet that fails to make sense. This is not what you call good publicity for the UNHCR, or Salem-News.com for that matter.

Dead Bodies

I was covering the war in Iraq the first time YouTube pulled one of my videos. They pulled the report from Baghdad because somebody complained that there was a dead terrorist in the footage. I was covering a war, hello? Or is war coverage only allowed on YouTube when it is politically correct?

YouTube has video posted of people being blown into pieces; there is footage of a Marine throwing a puppy off a cliff in Iraq. My footage showed a guy the Iraqi Special Forces killed. A human life is a human life, but it wasn't that big of a deal or overly offensive, unless the person complaining was related to the terrorist, which is what we suspect.

The bottom line is that the YouTube fairness system is designed with total credit given to the accuser, not the accused. They do not have an easy way to respond, just a form - very vague at that. I have always been a fan, and I mention YouTube more than most media groups in the average day, but I see that we will soon begin having to host our own video files. It has always been an option, but I thought YouTube was a cool and mutually supportive site.

I held my breath when they did this to us before, but now I feel like the convict who just got his second felony. I don't like it and we don't have to keep doing this.

And I still can't adjust to the idea that somebody at UNHCR went to the trouble to do this. There aren't a lot of media groups using this video from what I see, and we were using it well.

But now I've swung the bat and missed the ball twice, apparently. I see all of my video reports from the wars overseas just disappearing when we get our next complaint, along with our local content. If it happens, I promise our viewers that I will reload the 301 videos on a site that isn't as determined to harshly discipline its users.

Some of our YouTube.com videos have over 50,000 views.

If we hosted video for other users like YouTube, which is an option for our future, we will have a more fair policy; we will research complaints thoroughly and we will give more respect to users like Salem-News.com who have been part of their service for years, providing unique and interesting content for all YouTube viewers.

And just to show that our stories don't go away easily, I reposted the video tonight on MySpace which is an alternative I frequently rely on. So, here is the video that somebody at the UN Relief Agency doesn't want you to see; one that YouTube pulled without missing a beat. Let them complain to MySpace now. What a screwed up deal.

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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines.

Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com