1y ago

Recent and perplexing ordeal with YouTube

I worked for many years (hundreds of hours) locating, remastering and uploading content for a fan-based YouTube channel named 'R.E.M. Archive'. I did 99% of the work and was happy to do this for the huge fan base. I believe the channel existed for about 6 years or so.

I had to use the Wayback Machine in order to find an example screenshot of a video description.

A few weeks ago, I checked the email address associated with the channel and found this email from YouTube.

I followed a link, provided in that email, to fill out an appeal form. I, simply, stated that I'd be willing to make any/all adjustments to make the channel compliant with their policy.

And this was the response I received.

I'm not even mad. I will not fight them. This is utter horse shit.

11 comments

Are you aware of https://remvideoarchive.com/ It sounds like yes, and you were taking their archive content and reuploading them. Their official YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/@REMVideoArchive where if yours was REMArchive, I don't see how you'd be in the right. You were impersonating the YouTube channel tied to this fan group. Did you have any contact with this group?
- Is that other group active? Might be worth working with them instead of being on your own
  
  They uploaded 2 months ago, so it feels recent enough to say they are active.
- ...you were taking their archive content and reuploading them.
  You were impersonating the YouTube channel tied to this fan group.
  These are bold statements. I'm not sure where you are coming from. How are you coming up with these accusations?
  
  From the data you provided. I also put a qualifier on that which you cut out: "It sounds like" which means I am just working from the data you provided and the quick Google on the term you provided. The end result is that there seems to be another YouTube channel with an active website that is almost exactly the YouTube channel name you had. It seems like YouTube saw this and removed your channel as an imposter of theirs.
  Did you know of this other channel? Did you have contact with them? Were you uploading content similar to theirs, potentially the same archive footage from different sources?

You can appeal this bogus appeal outcome; but prepare to go to battle on Twitter with TeamYoutube and don't expect to win...unless you can prove your channel was either "more official", "not claiming to be official", or "Not Official, not claiming to be, and you started your channel before they started theirs.
Most of the time it's not worth the effort unless you have overwhelming evidence.
- Most of the time it’s not worth the effort unless you have overwhelming evidence.
  I completely agree. Hence why I will not be fighting this.

11 comments