My work stolen and uploaded to You Tube
 

Can anyone offer up a little info on the hows and whats on You Tube?

Someone has uploaded one of my previous projects to YouTube without permission and it has an advertisement showing on each play.

I'd like to know the following:

1. Should I want the account holder to remove my work from their page how do I go about doing this?
2. Who is profitting from the advertisement showing over my work?

Many thanks in advance - I've found the YouTube help pages about as helpful as a choccie teapot and can't get any decipherable information on how their advertising works. Anyone with experience in this would be a help right now...

Re: My work stolen and uploaded to You Tube
 

Well, the first thing you do is at the bottom of the video "hit" the "flag" button for inappropriate video. In this case the poster would have violated youtube's terms of use agreement.

Re: My work stolen and uploaded to You Tube
 

I would go here: https://www.youtube.com/copyright_complaint_form
I've had to do it twice in the past, and have been successful both times. It helps a lot if you already have the video on your YouTube channel though.

Re: My work stolen and uploaded to You Tube
 

How did they get it??

Re: My work stolen and uploaded to You Tube
 

There are many free software packages available on the web that once installed will allow you to download any YouTube or Vimeo etc. video (even if the owner has disabled downloading in Vimeo's case). I won't list them or link to them but Google will find you examples in seconds. Some come with what I would regard as malware too!

The quality captured is identical to what those hosts show in 1080p or 720p etc, not the original files the owner uploaded (assuming they were much higher quality). I have tested this on mine and a friend's videos so I know - although of course you can download the original pre-conversion file from Vimeo in circumstances where the owner makes this available.

Bottom line is ALWAYS watermark anything you regard of some value before hosting on the web - then at least they'll have to crop in and loose some further quality if they attempt to steal your work! Failing that, the suggestions and link above for YouTube provided by Edward is your next step. I'm sure Vimeo must have a similar procedure but I'm not familiar with the exact URL just now.

Good luck Stuart and let us know what happens.

Re: My work stolen and uploaded to You Tube
 

Thank you guys,

I've now read the YouTube article on copyright infringement - thanks for pointing me to that.

The film is a project I delivered for a client some time ago and it's obvioulsy been taken from their web site, where it is hosted for public viewing. I have no knowledge of how to protect it. The chap who took it is not claiming it to be his own work and is highly complimentary of the film so I'm not as unhappy as i could be but the important thing here is that he's uploaded it without consent. I've now contacted him and YouTube.

The thing that upsets me the most is that there is an advertisment over the film and someone, somewhere is earning money from my work (potentially) and I am finding it difficult to ascertain whether that is YouTube's doing or the uploader.

The watermark is an issue we've discussed here before and is fine for one's own work samples on Vimeo for example but a client invariably won't want that on their film especially when they are proudly playing it on their web site. It's a difficult one and I guess there is no real way it can be stopped!...

now to find out if anyone needs to send me a cheque for adertising revenue!...

Re: My work stolen and uploaded to You Tube
 

Don't hold your breath for a big paycheck... My videos have had over 70,000 views over the last few months. My revenue is only up to $60 now from advertisements!

Re: My work stolen and uploaded to You Tube
 

Even more of concern is the actual ownership of the video. Does it belong to you or your client the originalbuyer?