Flushed

One night last week, I decided to look for something on YouTube (I can't remember what it was, but I do know that it was not "wrestling boner"). I've done this just about every night for the past year or so, but for the first time in that time, I discovered I'd been logged out. Weird. When I tried to log back in this, this came up:

"Your account has now been permanently disabled." Has now been permanently disabled? That wording pisses me off because "now" implies that I had a past with YouTube in this matter. It pretends there'd been an ongoing battle between the site and me, and that this banishment is the result. Or maybe it pretends that I'd been warned that this was a possibility and my flagrant disobedience finally led to the inevitable punishment. Neither of these were the case.

And though I had no idea that anyone doing exactly what people do on YouTube could have me banned, I immediately knew why my account had been (it still hurts to type the next words) permanently disabled: I post "copyrighted material" and I do it often. I know that I am technically not supposed to do this: I'm reminded this every time I do it in the screens leading to the upload. But I also know that the worst thing that could happen would be that someone who owns the rights to such videos will complain and YouTube will yank them. It's a slap on the wrist you don't even feel.

Mostly, I know what YouTube is: a mecca for stuff you missed on TV and otherwise a nostalgia haven. Let's not get crazy about the vlogging component of the site: not one person I know visits YouTube primarily to hear people who can't even be bothered to coherently assemble their thoughts blather on vaugley about current events and concretely about YouTube politics. Popular vlogger boh3m3, for example, goes on and on about what it's like to be on YouTube, often raging against those who pump up their video views comments. You can't fault him for being conscious of the eyes that are on him -- he has a counter to detect every one. But he speaks as though Internet fame is a commodity, and as though his creation-feedback process is something exceptional. It isn't in either case. Look, I love Emmalina as much as the next 45-year-old perv who has to rely on lapdances for his sole source of sexual contact, but I'm not so smitten that I can't see this as a secondary use of something a website that is ultimately a sky's-the-limit archive of pop culture.

After it was clear that I wasn't getting into my account now, I emailed YouTube:

Hi,

I have no idea why my account has been "permanently disabled." I received no warning for this and I think that it's extremely unfair for the rug to be pulled out from under me like this. Could someone please explain to me why, and how, if possible I'm able to restore my videos? Some but not all of them were copyrighted and I know that you're aware that there's still plenty of copyrighted material still up on YouTube.

Please, an explanation or something would be great.

Rich

YouTube responded within 12 hours:

Hi there,

Thanks for your email.

Your account has been suspended due to repeated violations of our Terms of Use. Suspended accounts cannot be reinstated. Please view our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines here: http://www.youtube.com/t/terms and here: http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines

We are aware that there is copyrighted material on YouTube and we are working on that.

Hope this helps,

Sophia

Thanks, Sophia, for explaining nothing that I didn't already know. I might be a pirate but I'm clearly adept at sniffing out information because that's what pirates do.

This means, by the way, that every single thing that I ever uploaded to YouTube is gone. No more Winston videos (which, obviously, were my property but I guess Winston's guilty by association?). No more Liza on Larry King. No more Living Dolls. No more meth insanity. No more Mrs. World. No more Florrie.

I can't tell you how disappointed I am about this -- what started as something that I thought would be nice for readers of my blog who couldn't be bothered to wait for downloads to complete, turned into another media journal for me (I'm glad, however, that I did provide the option in many of my posts to download the mpeg or avi files that I posted on YouTube -- it prevented a lot of these posts from being totally irrelevant). My YouTube account very quickly became a survey of so many things that caught my interest over the year that I had it. And that's not even mentioning all of my saved favorites and subscriptions. All gone. Making sure the door hits my ass on the way out, YouTube won't even let me re-register under a different name, using the same email. I tried that earlier tonight, figuring that I might as well start from scratch, at least for the sake Winston (won't anyone think of the cat?!?!) and was met with this:

What, now I don't even get a "now?"

As much as this sucks for me and my borderline OCD need to document and log everything (and see how many other people are affected by it), I think it sucks for everyone's future. I don't know how many other people have encountered such unceremonious banishment at this point (I don't think it's been too many, considering the amount of unaccounted for copyrighted material still up), but people should get ready for it. The future of YouTube is no YouTube. The halcyon days are over. As with Napster and AudioGalaxy, the one-stop shop is closing. If all YouTube amounts to eventually is talking, empty heads, commercials and the most obvious of buzzworthy material (Andy Samberg, you have a bright low-def future ahead of you!), will you still use it as ravenously as you presumably do now? I won't.

I'm not trying to say that the end starts with me, but I do think my situation is another sign of the changing face of YouTube that may very well lead to ultimate irrelevance. The end probably started when Google acquired it, although maybe even before that. YouTube maybe swallowed itself. As soon as it hit its peak, the end was nigh. It needed to be popular to be able to be comprehensive, but as soon as something attracts that much attention, suits and corporations are necessarily part of the crowd that's stopping by.

What sucks about this is that, in so many cases, it's just a matter of red tape. I guess YouTube technically promotes piracy, but it's not the all-out theft that drives P2Ps. YouTube provides access to stuff that can't be bought, stuff that would go unwatched anyway. Corporations will complain about others making money off their material without licensing, but this is all money chasing money disguised as money chasing principle.

That's to say that I don't feel bad about posting what I did, and maybe that's why the punishment sucks. I can't say I'm surprised, either, but still: sucky. I suppose that until the next, free, under-the-radar thing comes along, I'll open a new YouTube account under a different email address. I'll rebuild myself, but probably avoid posting so much copyrighted material. Because I'm sad. I miss the collection that I built. But mostly I'm mad because you need an account to view YouTube's "flagged" objectionable content. As I don't have one, I can't. And I really miss those wrestling boners, damn it.

Comments

[inothernews]

I don't understand--it's not like you were posting full shows or anything, just random clips. It still doesn't seem quite violating copyright, its like taking a quote from an article.

You know, I bet Tyra was referencing you in her show about people calling her fat and she logged on with her own YouTube account and flagged vagina-arms video, as sweet "kiss my fat ass" revenge...

[inothernews]

Oh...I forgot about the full Living Dolls...'I'm glad I watched it before it disappeared. And my boyfriend and his labmates will miss the videos of Winston.

I forgot to tell you--one of his labmates put a random picture of Winston in an important lab presentation about cell migration or something. It was like "science science science, Winston, science science science."

[Mary]

boooooooooooo to youtube and their need to strictly adhere to "rules" don't worry rich if need be you can gladly use my account....

[Curtis]

I was a subscriber to the user Mordeth13 on YouTube and he, too, just recently got banned. His was because he had a video or two where he was complaining about some company that didn't do what they quite said they were going to do. The company caught wind of the video and requested that YouTube take action and they banned him as a result without warning (despite the message suggesting they had given prior warning).

He has videos on Live Video (http://www.livevideo.com/mordeth13) talking about this that you may be interested in.

Here is the first video (at about 3:30 remaining he starts to talk about it):

http://www.livevideo.com/video/Mordeth13/7EC7A83401A34A7CB7CBC6103674EFF9/banned-from-youtube-banned-part-1.aspx

[Chaka_Kahn]

Sucks. Try dailymotion in the future? They seem less on the copyright policing.

All I can hope is that the Liza video lives on in our hearts.

[whatwouldjanicedickinsondo]

that is awful.
Youtube is really biting the hand that feeds it. I have never accessed youtube for the purpose of viewing "original" content; rather, i search for clips from long-ago tv shows, or music videos for songs i haven't heard in ages, etc. If they insist on removing copyrighted material, they're going to be left with footage of 12-year-olds falling off their bikes as they attempt, and fail, stunts in their garages.

and i shall weep long and hard for the lost Liza clip. Long and hard.

[Penny Woods]

I noticed your account was suspended this weekend while I was just browsing YouTube. I was very upset when I had to delete several of your videos I marked as favorites.

I'm still amazed I haven't been banned from YouTube and YouTube started yanking off several of my videos before the Google merger.

[christiaan]

shit. that sucks.

my only advice would be to have one account for all your personal/winston clips and your bookmarks.... and then one account for any type of copyrighted material so that if they do another raid, that only those "illegal" stuff gets deleted.

i'm so glad i watched living dolls when you posted it! :) thanks for keeping me entertained!

[Penny Woods]

Nevermind. They just yanked off my YouTube account. Amazing.

[daveb]

Create a new account using a proxy to hide your IP address. Or, if you have a laptop, do your uploading in a cafe.

If you want to go the proxy route, I use and recommend Tor (http://tor.eff.org). It's pretty easy to set up and there's plenty of documentation on EFF's site. Your personal IP will be hidden and you should be able to create as many accounts as you want. You'll suffer a slight lag, but since you'll likely be using it just for uploading videos here and there, you'll likely be fine with (as I am).

Email me if you need help setting it up. Screw youtube!

[Joe]

I hear ya, babe. That sucks - but wrestling boners!?!? I have to check that shit out.

[shannon]

i'm sure you've already thought of this, but couldn't you get a hotmail or yahoo email address and re-register? good luck, rich! if you decide to boycott youtube, i'll support you!

[Billers]

Fuck Tube are a bunch of hookers, no doubt. I don't know what I am going to do without my Winston Fix. Bastards

[bethanne]

that is fucking horrible! :(

seriously rich, it's a bunch of shit really. i can understand the crackdowns that are going on with copyrighted material and everything, but to go to that extreme, it's ridiculous.

i hope everything goes well and don't let this get you down (i should know. i just went through a major surgery that would have knocked anyone - even tyra - on their asses and i'm doing just fine.) everything will work itself out real soon. <3

[deeyou]

I'm glad I went through all of your videos last week - I was looking for a Living Dolls clip - this is a sad sad day in the history of pop culture. Onto Xtube! (On a side note, how is it that Xtube gets away with being full of copyrighted material? Is it simply because it isn't as mainstream as it's PG-13 counterpart?

[Eric]

YouTube has a problem, but so do these studios and networks, etc. that insist on their content being taken down. HELLO, people are watching it--isn't that what you want? Great example, I had never even heard of this "Intervention" show until a blogger I love, Rich, posted a clip from it on YouTube and discussed it on his blog. Now I watch it all the time. Also, I just recently bought a few Mahalia Jackson songs on iTunes because I stumbled on clips of her singing on YouTube and thought she was stunning. I will never get over Dick Clark Productions for taking down the ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES from the GOLDEN GLOBES because they held the copyrights. What IDIOTS.

[kelly]

omg so sad! two days ago i was introducing my parents to youtube and went to show them the adorable winston videos and they were unavailable! i was wondering what the deal was. so sad...

: (

[amanjo]

YouTube must have been going on a tear this weekend. I noticed several music videos that I watched on Saturday were gone on Sunday. Most of the videos in question were uploaded in September. Way to piss in our cornflakes, YouTube.

[JH]

This is very upsetting, to say the least. YouTube should be licking your SHOES for the traffic your Liza video brought them. I certainly never went to that site to watch videos of miserable teenagers talking to themselves. How dull. (Although WonderRobbie has his moments.)

The Napster/ Audiogalaxy comparison so accurate. It's all over but crying!

I'm sorry you lost all your favorites, too. :(

[rose]

No more Winston? Say it isn't so!

[Mer]

Boo. I didn't get to even see the Meth wrestling since I was at work. FIGHT THE POWER!!!

[♥dex]

What a load of crap. Fucking suits have to ruin everything.

Sorry to hear this, Rich.

[k-lo]

I'm sad :( I'll miss Winston's videos

[Dany]

yeah youtube is on this crusade lately everyday that I go through my favorites 5- 10 videos are unavailable some of this stuff has been up for 6 months or more... bitches

[Foxy]

I noticed while looking up some Melrose Place videos over the weekend that YouTube had gotten very empty.

Another one bites the dust.

[stopthrowingyourself]

nooo! Your youtube account was the only way I could get my living dolls fix!

[Sofie Ivan Andersen]

I feel so sorry for you, Rich. And you are as always completely spot-on: copyrighted content is what everyone comes to YouTube for (at least me and everyone I know). Bad resolution TV in annoying ten-minute bits. WHY feel threatened by this? Like you said, if it's available to buy, I still will, and if it's not, is it then a problem?

[don'e]

I'd suggest opening two new YouTube accounts... one for your personal and legal videos and another for quirky, fun and copyrighted videos, that way if you get pimp slapped again you won't lose Winston's glory (he isn't the one that uploads illegal content, therefore he shouldn't have to suffer).

I'm really hoping that Torrent Pirate Bay really buys an island and sets up their own country/illegal haven for online copyrighted material because if that happens I'm sure they will open their own version of YouTube and it will be essentially the motherload of all YouTubes. The bottom-> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_bay

[g]

I noticed your account was deleted last week sometime. that sucks, i was looking forward to watching Swan on my lunch hour...

I miss her soo!

I don't understand why you would not be able to create another account.

fuck YOUTUBE!

[Val]

I used YouTube to watch old Sesame Street (back when Cookie Monster still ate cookies and Oscar the Grouch was still a cranky bastard and Bert & Ernie were oh so gay) bits and "Living Dolls" and, of course, ANTM clips and dear sweet Winston. I have no desire to watch everyday people with minimal talent make asses of themselves-I have my friends for that.
BOOO to YouTube!

[John R]

Man that sucks - I'd be pissed!

Dailymotion is safer - they are out of France (?). Myspace video looks way better than either in my opinion.

Yes, Youtube is no longer the Wild West, but newer companies are taking the position that it is impossible to control content on their site because, for example, the content is live.

Behold the future! (if you were a 15 year old emo kid that is): http://www.stickam.com

[Kath]

Seriously!!?? No more "Winston Eats Mashed Potatoes"! Fucking youtube. What a shitty thing to do. I hate them. HAAAAAATE!!

[vagabondblogger]

My son sent me yourtvlinks.com so I could watch TV shows not available on iTunes, while I'm overseas. Well I just tried the link for one of my favorite shows (which was working several weeks ago) and yes, it has disappeared. Screw the bastards!

[Catherine Cantieri]

Holy fuck! They deleted me too. Motherfucking YouTube -- I spent a lot of time on those files!!

Ah, man, I've got to see what I remembered to save on my hard drive. There went just about all the video content of my recaps!

I hope YouTube realizes that it has shot itself in the foot... fatally.

[wanda]

dave b has a good idea up there. you'll be able to work around it, though i'm sorry you lost your stuff.:(

[Nathaniel R]

This happened to me too so all of my video posts are gone for time and all eternit, Except for the 2 that I saved to my hard drive.

very disappointing

[Dana]

That's so sad. I'm so sorry! And I just watched most of the grammies on YouTube, so obviously there's still (and will always be) copyrighted material on there....seems like people should be THRILLED people want to watch their stuff, even online. :(

i love youu

[I hate Youtube]

I'm glad I got to see Living Dolls before YouTube killed your account, but unfortunately I missed the Miss World 2006 video. (How could I have missed all that crying and bitchery over a botched crowning ceremony?) It seems YouTube has gone on a vengeful hunt the last couple of days. The users who ran half of my subscriptions lost all of their video due to damn YouTube. Now how am I going to watch my reality tv shows and asian dramas? YouTube was like the Tivo I never had ... until it started pulling the copyright gestapo on everyone.

I feel for you Rich.
I hope you get your revenge someday.

[Milah]

This is such bull!! How am i gonna laugh till i pee at the ANTM recaps? How will i see Winston? Booo!!!

[Tati]

Have you tried making a free e-mail account with MSN or Yahoo and then using that e-mail to sign-up with YouTube again? I've done that on many websites to create multiple accounts.

[kels]

BooTube. Copywritten material is one thing, but deleting your Winston vids is like smashing the head of an innocent baby. Honestly, we should get a protest going.

[rachel]

Check out these links, which might explain your problem:

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/03/viacom_terrorizes_yo.html
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005109.php

And please find a way to put Winston and mashed potatoes back on the internet. Daily access to that video is essential to my mental health and happiness!!

[missmle]

If you need any gmail invites to set up new email(s) so you can open new account(s) let me know.

I watched Living Dolls probably four times AND made my ex sit through it as well.
A tear has been shed over this.

[Winston Lover]

Nooo! The horror, the agony! No more watching Winston lick mashed potatoes off your fingers! I'm in such shock.

What will I do now? I watch that video as an antidote to attacks of PMS, George Bushitis, and other painful episodes from my life. It's the only thing that has gotten me through! The sadness! Boo hiss You Tube. You Suck is right!

Cosmokid

[Ridwah]

I'd boycott but I'm too addicted! Sorry Rich. It just sucks that they didn't even throw you a warning letter.

[Sean]

You know they clock everything you watch, as well?

Time for service called "Big Gay Server".

[Black Lilly]

If YouTube knowingly let you post copyrighted material, the owners of the copyrighted material could sue the shit out of YouTube. You know they aint gonna sue you (unless they get really freaky like Napster did with that chick at MIT a few years ago. She downloaded and shared copies of songs from Napster and Napster sued her for 15K, or was it 150k? Can't remember....) Anyway, just so you can feel better, many big, powerful companies are doing exactly that - suing the shit out of YouTube for allowing copyright infringement. Hope this knowledge eases the pain....

[bobo]

dude i was totally looking for living dolls last night and noticed all your videos were gone. sad indeed. and totally ruined my internetting. f u utube! winston eatting corn is no longer, im fight back the tears

[bobo]

isnt it true that if a site is hosted in a country where copyrited laws dont apply its perfecty fine?

[rod]

As a note of solidarity I'll no longer post/link/utilize YouTube. (Which means cancelling that Buck Angel thing that I already wrote for tomorrow, but whever.) To cancel the account without the mere courtesy of prior warning is reprehensible.

[Izzie]

Hi Rich, long time (~1.5 yrs) lurker, first time poster. There has to be a way around this You Tube ban right? I'm addicted to your Project Runway recaps!!!!

[angela]

It's been great, I've enjoyed YouTube every day - and this was expected but so unnecessary. Thank you for sharing, you were a main reason I became so in love with YouTube, I spent some time over there today looking at Liza!

[christiaan]

i just realized something else... i was trying to use limewire last week and this week and it won't let complete any of my searches... so i can't download anything... hmmmm, coincidence n'est pas?

[RKitty]

Those bastards.

Tell Winnie I love him.

[Rich]

Just as a footnote (though it's mentioned in the actual post): 90 percent of what I put on YouTube has been uploaded as a separate, downloadable file in its respective post on this blog (check the links above -- I think the only one that doesn't have it is the Liza thing). You can still watch Winston eat mashed potatoes and do whatever stupid shit he does, you just have to download the file. But who has time for that, really?

[Nicole]

Absolute fuckery! This is just another fucked up moment in our march to hell/end of capitalism - greed is eating itself and then what? I'm upset!

[Mountain Lion]

It also means NO ASWIRL!

I think I downloaded it ages ago, so It thank you for that, but it is, as many have pointed out above

just fucking obscene.

[Katie]

FUCK.

[Zanna]

It's that fucking Viacom thing! They have removed EVERYTHING, even things that don't violate copyright, and things that they don't possess the copyright for.

Youtube has basically given them carte blanche to remove whatever they want.

Like I said on my Youtube profile (which, surprisingly, remains) "I hope Viacom's lawyers get castrated by a pack of rabid baboons wielding dull butter knives".

Your account was probably removed because you posted Living Dolls in its entirety, which pisses me off for the same reason that they removed clips from The Daily Show, THEY DON'T SELL IT ON DVD!

Youtube will be lucky if it even exists a year from now.

[John T]

And the wrestling boner videos aren't even very good.

[omar]

:O
This is freakin' bad
Rich, people, I'm starting a petition
"Give Rich back his YouTube account, Betches!"

[Gyn]

I'm so sorry, Rich. Especially about Winston. I really feel bad for you. Damn, I'm feeling sorry for myself also because YouTube is totally boring without your POV. Love you, Winston and Rudy.

[Orchide]

This makes me so sad Rich.
I never did get around to watching Living Dolls completely...*sigh*

[Cheryl Merkowski]

Awww..... poor you honaye.

I think that youturd was going after special people today... I mean... even Nornna had her account deleted! You are obviously very special. http://youtube.com/profile?user=nornna

Love you hard.

[Julia]

I agree with the poster that said that YouTube is only good now for watching people make asses out of themselves, BORING.
They suck the big wazoo. I am sorry this happened to you, you might not need them now since all they are playing now is shite.
Hang in there. Julie

[krup]

they pulled the same crap with my account too. i say we permanently disable YouTube...

[Amy]

Rich, I will be pouring one out in Brooklyn tonight for your fallen YouTube account.

[Shaft]

I feel for ya man...ive had two accounts "disabled"...and they really dont reinstate them...just make another one..i know it hurts..it pissed the crap outta me..it never happened to me before...AND....i had videos with a total combined over 1,000,000 views, so yeah..i had a lot of sweet videos...and i knew some of them copyright infringed..but 100's of other people on Youtube were doing it, and theres were still up...

UGGHH!! i feel your pain homie..stay strong..fight the power

[Amy]

Rich, I will be pouring one out in Brooklyn tonight for your fallen YouTube account.

[Shaft]

I feel for ya man...ive had two accounts "disabled"...and they really dont reinstate them...just make another one..i know it hurts..it pissed the crap outta me..it never happened to me before...AND....i had videos with a total combined over 1,000,000 views, so yeah..i had a lot of sweet videos...and i knew some of them copyright infringed..but 100's of other people on Youtube were doing it, and theres were still up...

UGGHH!! i feel your pain homie..stay strong..fight the power

[Andrea]

Rich...
You were the sole reason that I started watching YouTube. Damn them. Just wanted to let you know that you have the best blog out there and I crazy love you.

[Boobie]

Just to let you know, respected trade publication Cynopsis got the boot as well:

For reasons we have not been able to identify despite repeated requests for information, YouTube.com has unceremoniously removed all of the Cynopsis daily videos from its service and has "permanently disabled" our account. But no worries, you can find us elsewhere - www.cynopsis.com, iTunes, www.veoh.com, www.metacafe.com, www.grouper.com, www.dailymotion.com and www.video.google.com.

[Gillian]

You have no idea how pissed I am about this! I was a subscriber and I loved all of your videos. I went to settle in with some "Living Dolls" last night, and was dismayed to find that the videos were gone. Such bullshit. They really could have warned you to take the copyrighted material down before completely annhililating your whole account. I'm sorry. That's just stinky.

[Lainie]

Hey Rich I think you should ditch youtube and sign up with revver.com for your personal videos.

revver will pay you for views of non-copyrighted material. This would be a good time to put Winston and the gang up. You could start a college fund for little smash face Winston.

Then I would dump all the copyright stuff under a new alias on youtube. I doubt they match your IP address so you should be able to get in with another e-mail.

[Cara]

I am so sad for you, but also very sad for myself. You see, at work if we ever were getting in a rut, or it just wasn't a good day, I would take the reception phone, and page everyone Liza being crazy with a z! (Well Zed, because we are in Canada).

I also am not ashamed to admit that I stayed up well past bedtime to watch Living Dolls, only to watch it again the next day at work.

I am so sad, this sucks. Fucking YouTube.

[JadeFan]

Wait this means no JADE COVERGIRL COMMERCIAL!

:(

[Messalina 6-5000]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo....!!!!

That's how it happens, though. One of my friends got his account yanked, and the majority of his material was public domain type stuff. But they nuked him, with no warning and no explanation, and this was before the Google sale.

Eff this.

[Kit]

Ssssp!

Here's the new "you tube"

http://www.stickam.com/

Hope to see you there!

[DC]

Ummm, here's a thought. Maybe quit posting COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL!!!!!!

[nidra]

I'm afraid this is my fault. The second I discover something cool it goes to fucking pot, and I have to listen to people go on and on about the "good old days" of whatever-it-is without ever having had the opportunity to enjoy those days. So, I found out about YouTube. This is the result. I am very sincerely sorry, Rich (and Winston). I intended no harm.

[ebw]

thank god i watched Living Dolls in time. thank you for that.

[Ryan]

Rich-you hit the nail on the head with this:

"YouTube provides access to stuff that can't be bought, stuff that would go unwatched anyway."

Exactly. Who cares if I want to watch Jennifer Hudson's Leno performance since I missed it when it aired? So the fuck what? I'm not a Nielson viewer, no one is losing any money. Who cares if I want to watch clips of brilliant 80s sitcom Small Wonder? It's not out on DVD or playing on TV anyway. So the fuck what? I just don't get it. YouTube is great for things you are just not going to see anyway, so what is the big deal?

[Quel]

This really sucks. Sorry man.

[Susan]

What dickheads! They've been pulling shit left and right since Google bought them, YouTube is going down the tubes and the way of corporate sponsorship.

Have you tried LiveMotion? http://www.livemotion.com
I like to watch tv shows on there (they often get pulled for copyright, but...they're entire tv shows, I'm not sure how much they care about clips). It's one of many YouTube alternatives, but this one seems to be the most accessible video sites I've visited.

[Susan]

Okay, I'm an idiot - I meant DailyMotion, and I see you've tried it already. Sorry!

[andy]

remember, YouTube minus content = FuckallTube.

When the most interesting content is mexican fucking snuff movies, you know there's something drastically wrong.

I bet google wished they could back out of that deal. DRM and content providers are killing all that's interesting about digital media.

[Dragoness]

It's not YouTube...it's the little bitches who like to complain. They really don't know what you up load, and there are way too many things going up for them to check everyone. When reports to them that there is copyrighted material on their site they have to remove it...

[Jackie]

AH!! I HAD MY YOUTUBE ACCOUNT DELETED AS WELL!!!

Happened in Jan, and I was subscribed to your videos!

I was so pissed off, I haven't the effort to re-upload everything onto ifilm just yet.

I had 33 videos, and about 60 favorites, and to see that they were all gone, including comments seriously freaked me out and pissed me off. My account was Nightwind2323, and now its gone...and fuck youTube!

I used to love the youtube community so much, checking videos and stuff many time a day, and ever since my account was deleted, I hardly ever go to youTube anymore. They really are screwing themselves. I hope they crash and people go somewhere else to upload videos.

[Pop Muse]

Ugh, that happened to me about 6 months after I turned PopMuse into a video clip blog (about a year and half ago). So maybe I was one of the first, I demanded answers and maybe because this was b4 google, they told me they recieved 2 complaints from Dick Clark Productions. One for posting a clip of an old American Music Awards clip of NKOTB performing "No More Games" (can you imagine?) and one for posting a clip from "So you think you can dance."

I wrote a long e-mail explaining that youtube would be nothing without copy protected material and if they knock it all off the site will be nothing. I never heard back but after watching other bloggers get booted over this year, I've come to realize, they know that, so they kill the ones that get caught by copyright owners and leave the rest.

there are ways around it (email I'm not advertising that info), if you really want to stay on youtube, but I'd suggest moving to another site like ifilm or dailymotion. youtube is too under the microscope now, its over.

[Roland]

I've uploaded the Liza video to http://rolocroz.com/junk/liza.mp4 - it was transcoded to MP4, so it's not the greatest quality, but it's still better than nothing.

[yes]

the best always get banned, the makers of "i'm the juggernaut bitch" got some videos deleted

[i love winston]

What the fuck? That's such crap, man.

I'm not posting any more ANTM clips on YouTube. The site sucks and what they did to you and the other people who've commented was totally unfair.

They can suck it.

[Jae]

Same thing happened to me, they are shooting themselves in the foot..Jackie says it best: "I used to love the youtube community so much, checking videos and stuff many time a day, and ever since my account was deleted, I hardly ever go to youTube anymore. They really are screwing themselves. I hope they crash and people go somewhere else to upload videos."

[phil]

I had over 100 videos uploaded to my YouTube account last September when the same thing happened to me. Three "strikes" (volations of "terms") in your account and they will disable ALL accounts that use the e-mail addresss of the offending account. My solution: re-upload all of my videos but into MULTIPLE accounts - they're free after all - with no more than 6 to 10 videos PER account, each account using a different email address (easy to create on yahoo or hotmail). I now have over 20 different accounts. If one account is disabled, it's easier to re-upload 6 videos than 100.

[markndc]

yeah I got disabled too. My complaint is that most of my stuff was video remixes that were "not for resale - for promotional use only" and wasn't I promoting it by posting it on youtube? My other postings were home videos of things like my dog barking...! Oh well, once the good stuff is off youtube it'll go the way of Kozmo.com... just a faded internet memory.

[Dogsarecool]

I Have No Fuckin email address and now i cant get a fucking account

[Dogsarecool]

Now i am very angry at You Tube(cause what i said) , the you tube sign at the top of this page is true with the "You Suck fuck yourself" is very Funny, but true, they should

[JJ]

Get over the sight, what happened to you happnded to me to, i had about 60 vids up, with about 100K views in 6months, they pull the plug, not due o a tv company complaining, but simply because someone at youtube staff didint like my vids i m guessing.

I dont even use the site, its 2 years old, will be dad soon, who gives anyway...

I was pissed for a while because the channel becomes your little haven, but fuck youtube and google for that matter, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

All i experienced was a bunch of annoying teenagers with shite comments about my good vids..

RIP FUCKTUBE

Okay, I've been using youtube for almost a month to send traffic to my website, to generate sales. No big deal. Within the last week, I have two videos pulled because they violated their terms of use. Nothing about my videos violates any terms. I get an email with the last video pull saying, one more flag and my account will be deleted. Anyway, I googled "fuck youtube" and found this page with some great looking alternatives. So thank you very much and like most everyone else, I'd like to say, FUCK YOUTUBE IN THE NECK!! By the way, gross as hell but on YT you can find videos of a big, big ass cuban guy smoking a cigar while wacking off. You can't see his pee pee, but you can see his arm going 90 miles an hour and then he yells out almost in pain, then a grin. Give me a fucking break! Like that's not violating terms. Or maybe that's what I did wrong. I didn't masturbate! Now I get it. Well they can both jack each other off. I'm outta there ;)

[SAMY]

YOUTUBE IS SHIT,THEY DELETED ME TWO DAYS AGO

[Martel]

I just had my account suspended, and didnt have a single copyrighted video uploaded. Was suspended for "Violating terms of service." What the fuck? This is fuckin ridiculous, I just lost videos I made up to 6 years ago that I don't even have on tapes anymore because they got damaged/lost by people. Been an active Youtube user since late 2005, and now I have lost everything. Thanks youtube, You've just lost a more than very active user.

[Belarus_NL]

YOUTUBE SUX!
They have disabled my account without any explain.
Youtube Admins u are all sux, mother fuckers.

[squib]

Fuck YouTube,,,, there is NO Freedom for us any more on YouTube....

the FAT CATs have all power which now also includes capitalist YouTube! ....

[squib]

Let's bring down YouTube and put it, in its place ... we need to let it know who gave power to it ...

[irate]

YouTube does not really define what "repeated" complaints means. Is it two or fifteen? So when on the third complaint, my account of 150+ videos was suddenly deleted , it was devastating. I hear this illegal. They have to be specific, in writing, to warn us.
What right did they have to remove videos that did not infringe at all, that were shot with permission and original?
What right did they have to remove a video and delete my account for a video which still exists on another account with my subtitles and my description? Don't I have a 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law?
WE NEED A CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST THESE PEOPLE.
IS THERE A LAWYER WHO IS INTERESTED IN HELPING US?

[45junkie]

Ah, the 'Sophia' syndrome again!. Many companies who dish-out bad news, always have it signed by a 'sweet-sounding' candy name. A person who you so desparately want to punch, but hold back....because it's a 'Sophia'. Oldest trick in the book.
I lost my account of over 300 clips, and got the same reply. I've started all over again, and saving them this time, to upload again and again. I will never stop. Under a new name of course!

[Malcolm Lambe]

Just got boned - again. The first time they "permanently disabled" my "Wallyworld" account I managed to get Damien Estreich - their Australian rep. to get me reinstated. I've had 7.5 Million views of my 338 vids and been featured by YouTube 3 times. And yes I use copyrighted material sometimes - but "in the public interest". The galling thing is, YouRube is awash in copyrighted content and Porn and Vile and Violent videos. But if you're a "repeat offender" as they call it, they can you. With no redress. Ever tried to contact the Editors? I email them occasionally and it takes them about 2 months to reply. All that money and they can't service their "customers"? I really hope the Viacom case bankrupts the bastards.