Telus: YouTube copyright censor
p2pnet.net news:- “I find myself in a bit of a quandry,” says a comment post on Michael Geist’s blog.
Why’s that? Because Telus, the Canadian company which recently got egg all over its face when it tried, and failed, to sell pornography to subscribers, has developed a bad case of copyrightitis.
“A blog reader points to a site listing more than a dozen videos posted on YouTube that Telus has demanded be removed due to copyright concerns,” says Geist going on:
While there are several videos that may indeed be subject to Telus copyright, many others appear to merely involve union videos that surely do not contain Telus copyrighted content. For example, the site notes a news report (available here) for which Telus claimed copyright ownership with YouTube.
If this is a case of overreaching, it is particularly unfortunate given that Telus has been a vocal opponent of the very notice-and-takedown system that it now uses, having argued that the US system leads to a “voluminous level of automated, illegitimate and time-wasting claims.”
Continues the comment post, “First, it’s laughable that Telus thinks it can claim ownership of video’s that they didn’t make ie. personal TWU union member footage of the 2005 Lockout, and TV news reports. I wonder if CTV, Global and the rest of them know this?
Secondly, it’s scary to think that anyone could have material taken down from YouTube without verifying owership of it and, scarier yet they can wield that kind of power to censor the ‘net. But they have done it before.”
They have indeed. Geist’s reader points to an OpenNet Initiative Bulletin 010 slugged, “Telus Blocks Consumer Access to Labour Union Web Site and Filters an Additional 766 Unrelated Sites”.
Telus says The Future is Friendly, but the Telecommunications Workers Union, and the owners of more than 750 web sites, including a breast cancer fundraising organization, had good reason to doubt that. As Bulletin 010 says:
On July 25, 2005, Canadian Internet Service Provider (ISP) Telus blocked subscribers’ access to a Web site set up by an employee labor union intended to publicize the union’s views about its dispute with Telus. In addition, the OpenNet Initiative’s (ONI) research shows that Telus’s decision to block traffic to the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the site caused collateral filtering of at least 766 additional, unrelated Web sites. Telus restored access to the IP address hosting the sites on July 28, 2005, while appearing to maintain an option to block any sites it chooses.
The Geist blog post continues:
The Telus Idol video is what the company is so fearful of. The description on a torrent on Pirate Bay states, ‘TELUS Incorporated Corporate Retreat Teambuilding Video in Montreal, Canada. A Canadian Idol parody depicting corporate executives displaying inappropriate conduct with peers and subordinates. Panned by mass-media outlets, this is a stark portrayal of the depravity of what goes on behind closed doors in the corporate world.”
A notorious home video captured during a Telus corporate retreat which was so incendiary, news media outlets won’t touch it at all.
On TPB? Oh! The Horror!
This is merely one example of what this company is about. More examples of assaults by AFI (Telus’ hired guns during the lockout) can be seen here.
“The public never got a chance to see what was really going on during that time because 99% of coverage was squashed before it hit the news. Had it been publicly aired, the company’s “good corporate citizen” image would have been irretrievably flushed.
At the end of the day, it all seems to come down to corporate cover-up. Perhaps not illegal, but most certainly embarrassing I’d think.
The Ken Birzneck Assault; This is the TELUS Idol background; and, Spotlight on AFI – the brown shirts are back, says CUPW New Vision, going on, “These videos were deactivated from Youtube on June 1st 2007 over a copyright complaint by TELUS subject to my counterclaim of course. All they left me with was the Belinda Stronach Remix and the Captain America Skit.”
Above this, “Darren Entwistle’s Lawyer, Super Dave Whotherspoon has been working overtime to continue to censor the Internet” says the blog. (Entwistle is Telus’ ceo.) It goes on:
All those TELUS Idol videos I posted on youtube they finally had removed on get this, copyright infringement. That is hilarious. Don’t ya think TELUS using the Canadian Idol logo for a sleazy drunken smut party was a copyright infringement? I contend that they don’t own the copyright to complain about it. I contend that those videos are part of exhibits documenting Darren Entwistle’s unethical behavior and it is a crime to censor the truth from the Internet, again.
Nevertheless, it certainly doesn’t surprise me. What does surprise me is how long it took him. What does surprise me is the long list of other videos that were taken off that TELUS did not own the copyright to. News reports on TELUS lying about contracting out for one example. You can watch the exact video on the TWU local 213 web site. That was one that TELUS had removed from Youtube on a copyright violation but they did not own the copyright.
Why would Darren want that taken off Youtube? A BC FED rally on Labour day??? TELUS certainly did not own the copyright to that. Videos of the Teamster’s Horsemen? They didn’t own the copyright to that. Videos of AFI assaulting TELUS Employees on the picket line? That is a crime against humanity to censor that from the Internet. Now I have to file a counterclaim but because I don’t live in the US I don’t think I can. So the Censorship machine continues.
Definitely stay tuned.
Also See:
blog – Is Telus Overreaching With YouTube Copyright Claims?, June 6, 2007
sell pornography – Catholics attack Telus porn plan, February 12, 2007
750 web sites – Telus blocks hundreds of sites, August 3, 2005
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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June 7th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
My theory as to why Telus is pulling the plug on these things NOW?
http://itschironboy.blogspot.com/
July 12th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Hi folks: I was the salesperson that originally aquired TELUS IDOL and brought the issue forward. Happily I am no longer there.
On the issue of copyright; as memory serves me, Mr Entwistle played competitors ads that day and that is also on tape- a piece of information missed by legal council for TELUS.
Take Care.
Jeff Morris
July 25th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I stand to be corrected, but there’s another point of Telus’ and DE’s hypocracy which has been alluded to, but not fully grasped. Enforcment of copyright comes through injunctions. Injunctions are equitable remedies. Equity law requires that parties seeking equity come with “clean hands”. Since Telus itself is clearly violating the American Idol copyright, its hands are soiled and ought not to be eligible for equitable relief.
Another remedy for this might be for anyone on this blog who is a shareholder in TD Bank to complain to TD’s ethics committee about DE’s ( a TD director) continuing inconsistency with respect to this matter. Surely his behaviour bring TD into disrepute as long as he is on their board….
September 18th, 2007 at 10:49 am
For even more fun Google “Telwho telus Idol” and” Am I dead yet blogspot.com”.
Seems the crowd of people impacted by TELUS trying to protect its image is growing. Am I dead yet deals with a TV crew who got canned for running a story on TELUS porn on Vision TV. The story was going to run in the Globe and Mail as well and then got pulled at the very last minute.
Some folks tale comfort in letters I suppose:)
October 14th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
I use openDNS, so it makes it a little more difficult for Telus to sensor me.
November 23rd, 2007 at 5:36 am
Greetings! Here’s a follow up on the TELUS Youtube story now about Facebook. Cheers: http://www.cupwnewvision.org/darrens_nose.htm