Tons Of Punk Videos Were Yanked Off YouTube: Here's What Happened

By LA Weekly Fri., Dec. 16 2011 at 3:30 AM

Robert Kenney

Greg Ginn, second from left

By Nicholas Pell

On Wednesday morning, several punk bands awoke to find their videos had been removed from YouTube. They were understandably irritated; that's almost worse than running out of beer.

In their places were notes that they'd been yanked due to Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaints lodged by SST Records -- the legendary label founded by Black Flag's Greg Ginn, formerly based in Los Angeles but now in Austin. The allegation? That these videos were using unauthorized SST music.

But that was not so.

In fact, in the case of bands like L.A.'s The Adolescents and Austin's The Lower Class Brats -- two groups whose videos were pulled -- their music has nothing to do with SST at all. They've never been on the label, and they certainly weren't pilfering the imprint's music.

Immediately, then, animosity raged against Ginn. Various Internet forums teemed with allegations that he was on some sort of rampage, or had sold out and wasn't punk. Huffington Post even jumped into the fray, falsely claiming that Ginn improperly filed copyright claims on things he didn't own.

It turns out that Ginn is almost certainly not to blame. After speaking with him and reviewing published YouTube guidelines, this is apparently what happened: Those posting the unauthorized SST videos in question were actually random internet denizens (not band members), and those videos were legitimately shut down by the DMCA complaints.

Only, these random denizens also had other videos on their accounts, from bands like The Adolescents and The Lower Class Brats. Because YouTube has a "three strikes and you're out" rule, once a user has had three videos yanked, his entire account is often shut down. Thus, folks who had had at least three SST videos removed had all of their videos removed -- including, in some cases, from non-SST bands like The Adolescents and The Lower Class Brats.

What's not up for debate is that Ginn himself authorized the DMCA complaints against SST content, which also fueled the "you're not punk, maaaaan!" allegations. "It is not a new matter that I am concerned about how my music is presented," says Ginn. "As YouTube has 'monetized' videos, a cottage industry has popped up to make money on putting videos up. I have seen our songs put up with ads placed in the middle of the song so as to trick the content owners."

Tags:

Black Flag, Greg Ginn, Lower Class Brats, SST Records, The Adolescents

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steve

how about paying all of the back royalties you owe to black flag members, husker du and countless other bands you greedy fuck? i would like to see how much money you make on your back catalog, and why you won't let people reissue records that you have had out of print for years, like the stains lp.

E B

Really? "almost worse than running out of beer"?! Fuck off.

Hajjaj

wow, lighten the fuck up! Still sad they shut down your youtube account or your straight edge?

Foxhorn

Regardless of it being pirated, stolen, what the fuck ever. it was fucking punk rock. either fucking way, Gregg gin is still the little fucking dickhead he's always been. i find it so fucking contradictory that he'd make a claim to music thats tied to a scene thats against this very type of bullshit. he is a fucking poser.

むずむずする

I believe SST & Greg Ginn did nothing wrong with reporting copyright infringement regarding Youtube videos. The problem is that there is a bias against "fair use". Copyright holders have jumped the guns on infringement claims, both online and elsewhere. Youtube uploaders may not know if they need to get permission or how to contact the copyright holders.

Fair use allows for parody, satire, & "re-mixes". Check out ECLECTIC METHOD www.youtube.com/ecleticmethod . They seem to get away with ALOT of "sampling".

I do have a problem with Youtube's copyright policy. I upload live videos & i have had complaints filed against my account for videos I TAPED of bands playing shows I SET UP. Youtube doesn't always tell you who files a complaint.

Hats of to Mr. Pell for bringing light to this situation with copyright infringement, the DMCA & online piracy. I would suggest people read Lawrence Lessig's book FAIR USE (see www.lessig.org online for free) and watch the documentary COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS (which is on youtube, for now). Cheers.

Robert_Cratchit

Except that Bittorrent exists.

むずむずする

SST STILL SUCKS.

Allison W.

You call this reporting? If you followed the actual links to the videos in question here (Adolescents, X and the countless other bands that had NOTHING to do w/ SST) you would have clearly read "This video was removed due to a third party copyright claim by SST Records." These were false claims of copyright that were flagged by none other than SST Records, a label famous for not accounting to or paying it's artists. The article above is in fact full of mis-information from Greg Ginn himself, a man trying to vainly save face here. The author of this so called "news" didn't do HIS research and instead relies on a one-sided claim from the perpetrator himself. Weak.

Maxmorter

your a moron its people who posted the stolen music that had the adolescents and other stuff on their youtube do you not know how to fucking read?

Allison W.

Do you understand how You Tube works? You are the ignorant one. Name call all you want and ignore the facts or read the real story here, complete with the proof that the individual videos in question were illegally flagged as content owned by SST Records. The graphics included in this article don't lie, but Greg Ginn does. And if the moderator doesn't allow this post it will only further prove my point.http://lafiga.firedoglake.com/...

Nicholas Pell

Actually if you read the notice it says the ACCOUNT was removed due to claims from SST. I talked to people at both YouTube and SST.

West Coast Sound

Doesn't look like you read this very closely. SST made the claims, yes, but it appears they were all against users who infringed on copyrights. As a byproduct, ALL videos posted by those users were taken down, even the legitimate ones from groups like the ones you mention.

Allison

What you just said makes no sense and is not how You Tube operates. Anyone interested in this should read the real story linked here, complete with the graphics clearly displaying the erroneous copyright claims on the said songs. This is evidence, where's yours? By the way, this was published almost three months ago. http://lafiga.firedoglake.com/...