Understanding the Problem Behind
Doug Walker, better known as the Nostalgia Critic, recently vented his frustrations at the YouTube Copyright System in a video entitled "Where's the Fair Use?"
• Where's The Fair Use? - Nostalgia Critic
While Walker has a clear grasp on the symptoms of the problem and has some great common-sense suggestions for improving it, I don't think he fully grasps the cause of it.
In his rush to blame Hollywood, he fails to realize that the nature of the problem is much more complex and is largely a byproduct of YouTube's own success.
I'm in a unique position here. I do copyright enforcement, occasionally (though only rarely) involving YouTube, and I've operated a movie review channel, Garbage Horror. I know what it means to send takedown notices/claims and to be on the receiving end of them.
In the end, the bitter truth is that, as long as YouTube has automated tools for enforcing copyright, which is a necessity for a site this size, there will always be issues regarding fair use and no changes will fix it.
Even if the system does work out perfectly, a change tomorrow could throw all of the progress away. That's because Content ID and YouTube copyright claims (not strikes) are a creation of YouTube, not the law, and there's not much that can be done about it.
In short, this is YouTube's world and we're just all posting in it.