Hoo - long post coming up:
Yeah - the thing about the whole Content ID and DMCA drama I don't get is, entities are going after short videos that ought to be protected under terms of Fair Use or exceptions in their local copyright law. But... somebody posts an animtaed feature, obviously without permission from the original creators and owners, and it can stay up online for months or even years. Insane.
Still, in terms of picking up and carrying on later down the line, plans are already afoot.
It looks like I'll be forced to do work within Youtube primarily, which is kind of disheartening. But I may be able to expand across other platforms. There's nothing with the kind of traffic Youtube gets, but I may use DailyMotion to post advance previews of forthcoming reviews, or as a back-up in case of any further trouble. I hear DailyMotion isn't without its own copyright related issues, so I need to look into those.
Otherwise, I guess I'm placing my faith in what I've learned about Youtube's inner workings.
I started having difficulty with YAM112003 after a video got flagged by an automated Content ID claim, whereupon they subscribed to my channel and were evidently sitting on it waiting for me to post anything they could claim manually. The only other claimants I've ever had to deal with are Sony Pictures.
I've since learned how the Content ID system can be circumvented (which, saying it like that, sounds dodgy as all get out) so the hope is that I can use that to avoid problems when I start up again. And of course, I'm allowing time for Google to actually start shaping things up over there. We'll see.
One other option I'm considering is paring the videos back to static screen grabs and graphics, with no moving pictures at all. I don't want to do that, as I'd rather be able to show folks what the shows and films look like in motion - which, given the nature of the content, I should be legally entitled to do. The worry is that, doing that might turn viewers off. But then, I had to do that with my Sky Crawlers review in the end, and that performed pretty well in terms of page views.
To be honest, at this stage, it's all so much effort, with so little guarantee of plain sailing or even reward, that I feel pretty de-motivated. But the plan is to come back in July - August time a bit more aggressively. Which is, apparently, the HdE way.
I've also learned the strategy to take against false claimants as well. So you can bet I'll be fighting back against those VERY proactively if they prove to be an issue in future.
