YouTube has an obligation to remove videos that violate national and international copyright laws. Typically, it is the music companies that have been enforcing their copyrights, so YouTube’s response is often to mute the audio track on a mash-up video. Some cry “censorship,” but the issues are never quite that simple. Unfortunately, if one tries to use YouTube as source to learn more about what does and what does not apply as copyright infringement, one will find videos from multiple perspectives on the issue. There aren’t many lawyers who have posted clear instructions for users on this matter.
The process of censoring videos on YouTube is also highly subjective. YouTube employees may do some direct observation of user videos, but the website relies more heavily on its users to report suspicious activity. On each video page there is a red flag that displays under the video player that a viewer can click on to flag the video as inappropriate. Clicking on this link will take the viewer to a page where they can explain why they believe the video is inappropriate. The report gets sent to a customer service representative so that it can be investigated. However, if a video gets multiple reports the video may be automatically taken down without investigating the claim. There are many upset YouTube users who claim that their videos were removed even though they were not inappropriate. These often include videos with religious or political content as well as those that are artistic mash-ups of existing materials.