Dear youtube,

   WAH WAH WAH, I HATE FREEDOM!!!
 

I hope you get to the bottom of this soon.  Until YouTube gives reasons I'll assume it's a mistake that can be rectified.  I certainly hope it's a mistake that can be rectified.

Im not sure if this is an internet conspiracy/propaganda to gain popularity to this site but if this continues, i think the best solution is to make your internet atheist followers do a crusade against Youtube is to do the same way as Nick Gisburne. To make videos spread like a virus. Make your videos downloadable to everyone so they can post them on youtube or anywhere on the net.

Maybe that way more people will be more interested to take the Blasphemy Challenge. I understand very well the business of the internet is all about money. Your only purpose is to create a never ending stream of links back to you site.

If you give youtube a bad name, then Youtube will give you a bad name. Therefore this will create a circular debate that will lead to endless popularity for you guys.

 As for me, i dont follow any group of people. So im outside of this. I use other techniques to gain popularity to sell my products. (Script kiddie)

 Since you dont have enough followers, i think suing them would be a very bad idea. If you do, i can tell you right now that you will loose. So just give them a taste of their own medicine.

There are two things you need to know about your videos.

#1. People love them!
#2. Once you release one, it can spread like a virus!

That's really all a good marketer needs to hear to understand their real marketing power on the Internet. A good, free video can be your best salesman 24 hours a day non-stop.

Plus, your best salesman will duplicate himself automatically as other web sites host it or link to it for their own visitors.

It's hard to ask for a more powerful marketing tool than that.

The video can multiply upon itself without restriction and in all directions at once.

Good news that they responded and you had at least a chance to explain your side of the argument.  Let's hope they reinstate the account.  I think they will.

I think every YouTube account is vulerable to this tactic because nearly everyone uses some type of content in their videos that violate copyright.  It's chilling. 

The problem is that if one is doing anything that upsets enough religious people, those upset people almost have a kind of senorship ability for most channels because of the massive amount of copyright violations on YouTube.  Especially those channels that have a library of old videos created before all this copyright enforcement started on YouTube.  Ultimately it's an oversight of the makers but it's a huge liability for those of us that make controversial religious themed videos.

"Atheism is a religion in much the same way "off" is a TV channel."

Oh I love that! Who said it? Can I use it? (Don't want to be slapped with a copyright infringement penalty)

So how do we combat this? Should we just hit up every god freak on youtube and "flag" their posts?

Don't let pride get in the way of your better judgement.  If it works for them, why not fight fire with fire?

 I think the profanity probably did you a disservice, especialy with the "holier than thou" attitude theists often have and excessive stands on anything that may be not-so-nice (unless it's something or someone they disagree with in which case anything goes as god is on their side.

 That being said, I'm quite dissapointed I've got such an old phone 'cause I'd love to turn that you're a bunch of cock fucking cum guzzling anal probing cunt licking tape(?) sniffing bitch ass motherfuckers" in to a ring tone.

Some of you are taking this the wrong way.

Think about it. If the theists on YT are working so dilligently to get the vocal Atheists banned, this means something. This means that they are scared of the message. Knowledge is the antithesis of faith. By spreading knowledge the atheist community has commited the greatest sin of all, and is encouraging others to do the same. The sin of thinking.

Take pride in the work that has been done. Take pride in the fact that the message you present is so frightening that it must be removed lest it cause some viewers brain to start working. So some videos on YT get removed. This will not stop the knowledge from spreading. Once information is brought to light, it will always find a way to banish the darkness. It's just a matter of time.

I for one welcome the bannings. Bring it on. Controversy breeds interest. All their actions will do is bring the RRS to the attention of even more people.

Ok, I had another email exchange from youtube today.  They didn't confirm or deny what we were removed for.  However a person working in copyright said "If you prevail in your counter-notification, we will be able to reactivate your account and restore your videos."

 Again, keep in mind we can't be sure it was copyright or censorship or flagging.  They are like politicians over at youtube, and rightly so.  I'm hoping that the girl who made the above quoted statement had full knowledge of my account, and that her claims were accurate.

Not sure if you noticed, but I posted this thread on reddit (just your happy liberal atheist intellectual social bookarmking service) and they seemed to resound in a collective WTF, even given the scant amount of information available at this time. It's sad to see that in the Internet age a scoundrel like Uri Geller can still get away with perpetrating bullshit. My secular atheist prayers to the eternal uncaring nothingness go out to you.

I don't have that kind of patience. In 10 - 14 days, I'll have uploaded at least 50 - 70 videos or more.

I disagree... they wouldn't have touched Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, etc. Christians are always fair game for stuff like this.

Before I get flamed, I actually agree with you guys. This amounts to censorship, and infringes on your rights to free speech. You should complain. I don't know that you have a discrimination suit, but I'm no lawyer.

Opinions so noted.

If you think for one moment that atheists should NOT feel as if all christendom, islam, etc. is upset by our very existence then I would encourage you to read your own words from your blog in a different perspective, Cory.

Ultimately, the problem isn't JUST the theists. Youtube itself must bear the responsibilty for its actions or lack thereof.

Ummm. I think you turned that into being about you and your kind right there.

Perhpas I might need to re-word it.

Both sides should probably feel threatened because of that one little piece called 'belief'.

One could question the need for apologetics(big league or otherwise) to practice this 'shepherding the flock'. I believe you answered that question for yourself, but I think you could also realize that your answer fails more than it succeeds. 

I just read James Randi's SWIFT newsletter for the week and found this entry of interest:

GELLER ON THE ROPES

Well, it appears that Mr. Uri Geller is feeling the heavy pressure of all those "unfortunate" video clips that have been going the rounds on the various Internet services! He’s issued complaints, demands, and generally dissatisfied noises, and in response, an entity known as “Explorologist Limited” has suddenly materialized and demanded that YouTube take down the Israeli-TV video that shows Geller "caught in the act" with the moving-the-compass trick, and the “Nova” excerpt in which he floundered about when he wasn’t allowed to fool with the props before the show. Of course, there are many similar clips available, and they’ve been copied and recopied all over the world, since the moment they first went up on the Internet. The YouTube people apparently were told by “Explorologist Limited” – who advertise that they’re a “Private Company” registered in the UK, dealing with “Radio and Television Activities/Provision of Services to Television, Radio, and Broadcasting” – that these video clips are copyrighted by Mr. Geller, a statement which is quite untrue.

For example, the "Nova" [PBS] show titled, "Secrets of the Psychics," uses the well-known video excerpt of Geller’s 1973 appearance on the Johnny Carson show in which he was unable to do any of his usual tricks, simply because I had been consulted by Johnny in advance and had provided him with the appropriate precautions to take so that Geller would not be able to do any trickery. I personally requested Johnny Carson to provide WGBH/Boston with a copy of that episode, since NBC had wanted a very large amount of money to provide for that usage.

That large fee demanded by NBC was quite understandable, actually. To simply locate and make a copy of that particular program was expensive and time-consuming. At risk of giving you much more detail on this matter than you might want to know, I will tell you that it involved actually taking the original two-inch videotape recording, removing it from its reel, then using a specially-constructed lathe to shave off a millimeter or so from both edge-surfaces of the tightly-wound mylar tape. You see, as we now know, the emulsion adhesive eventually seeps out over the years to form a layer of hardened goo which causes these old tapes to stick as they peel off the supply reel. NBC had to then run the tape on a specially-sized slightly-less-than-two-inch playback machine, one kept especially for that purpose. So, this was a rather expensive procedure, but was generously arranged by Johnny so that WGBH/Boston would be spared that expense.

That appearance was a total disaster for Geller, and it's quite understandable why he would not want it to be freely available to be seen! However, any claim by Geller that he has a copyright on that appearance – or on any of the others, for that matter – is a fantasy. What I'm getting at here is that Geller has no copyright on any of that material, and YouTube should not have so easily responded to the demand by “Explorologist Limited” to withdraw those video clips.

Ah, but I hear you saying, “Just who is Explorologist Limited?” Funny you should ask! This, it turns out, is a dummy corporation set up in the UK by the only two shareholders: Shimshon [Shipi] Shtrang – Geller’s brother-in-law, also listed as “Manager” of the corporation, and Uri Geller Freud – also listed as “Director” of the corporation, as well as, “Artist/Writer.” Quel surprise! These two individuals hold the £100 of the total Explorologist Limited funds – 75 shares for Mr. Geller Freud, and 25 for Shipi!

And YouTube saw this as a challenge…?

In any case, these video clips are going right back up again…

not to be an asshole, but doesn't youtube have the right to suspend any account or delete any video for any or no reason, being a free site? 

http://www.slumdance.com/blogs/brian_flemming/archives/002574.html

March 30, 2007

Uri Geller abuses DMCA to cover up embarrassing YouTube videos

It did also say they were deleted for violating the TOS, not "because we felt like it."

Unfortunately DMCA is crap but companies have to follow it because its law.  YouTube is too big to just ignore them, tho I know they are under litigation for this but still.  Hopefully we will know in like a week or so on what will end up happening with the situation.   

so you're admitting on the one hand that they have the right to delete any account, and that your deletion could very possibly be due to copyright infringement, yet on the other hand this is being made out to be an attack on atheism by conservative christianity?  doesn't make much sense to me. 

sure, i've seen theists and atheists alike go on stupid crusades.  my point is, i don't think this is about ideology at all, and it's not really fair to assume that this is an attack on atheism until it gets sorted out.

What I'm wondering is why if there's anything "wrong" with a video it doesn't get noticed during the approval process - look how fucking long it takes before a video is available!