“Letters in red read: Claimant Information will be published on the Youtube site in place of the disabled video”

Nothing says “I’m a total dick” like threatening to reveal one’s personal information to the world. But that’s exactly what the second largest company on earth does.  This is YouTube/Google’s stated policy.  Not even the TV show Silicon Valley has brogrammer-villains this vindictive.

Here’s how this works:

If you are an independent songwriter or performer and say one of your songs is leaked in advance of the record?  You do what you’ve done a hundred times on other sites. You fill out a DMCA notice and most of the time the site pulls the song.

But YouTube/Google of course has to be a total dick about it.  When you attempt to do this with YouTube this is the  screen that greets you when you attempt to file a complaint.  Read it.   They’ll let you take the song down but they’re gonna plaster your personal information all over the web.

This goes beyond bullying.  This is flat out intimidation. They get to keep something of  YOURS  or they reveal your personal information.  Didn’t they used to call this EXTORTION?

Of  course the major record labels have access to something called the Content ID system.   They don’t get treated the same.  Indie artists?  We get bullied and intimidated.  Don’t stand for this.

Write your congressmen, state AG, and the DOJ directly.

To write your congressman:

http://www.contactingthecongress.org

To find your state Attorney’s General:

http://www.naag.org/current-attorneys-general.php

To report anti-trust concerns directly to the DOJ:

http://www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html#document