YouTube has always been a conduit for online movie and music piracy. Some copyright infringement is prevented by YouTube’s Content ID system. Although not perfect by any stretch, the fingerprinting technology does (usually) alert creators (who are lucky enough to have access to the tool) when their content is illegally uploaded. Unfortunately, YouTubers have found plenty of ways to circumvent this safeguard. Meanwhile, the powers that be at Google/YouTube just look the other way.
Pirates easily share links to full movies
One approach YouTube pirates use is to upload a short dummy clip, or movie scene, that includes a direct download link to the full movie in the description. While some lead to spam sites, many link to the full version–many stored on Google’s own Google Drive platform.
Some YouTube pirates are cheeky enough to include a disclaimer stating they “do not own any of the materials used,” but in the same breath, include a link to the entire film. They then have the gall to ask that donations be sent to their PayPal account.
Another method, demonstrated by the YouTube pirate below, is to upload a placeholder clip (with film’s title making it easy to search for and find) that includes onscreen instructions to look to the description below for a full download of the movie (stored on Google Drive).
Of course, there are still plenty of YouTube users who continue to upload full movies to their channels. They often tweak the files to bypass a porous Content ID fingerprinting system. Per the broken DMCA, it’s up to each and every creator/rights holder to scour the site to find these stolen movies and for many, many remain untouched.
Since the take-down burden remains with the indie filmmakers many don’t have the means to search out and remove the pirated movies. Ultimately, the proliferation of these pirated copies undermines their ability to earn income and pay off production debts. The piracy also threatens their ability to produce more films.
One has to ask (again), why can’t Google–with all its access to technology–detect such infringers and prevent them from sharing these pirate and/or spam links in the first place? Hint-it has no motivation to do so. The question then becomes, why hasn’t the DMCA caught up with the 21st century?
YouTube pirates also post links to encrypted messenger app Telegram to share stolen movies
There are other ways pirates use YouTube as means to advertise their offsite pirated content. Here’s a user that uploads a short clip from a popular film, in this case Carol, and posts a link in description. This time it’s not a Google Drive link, but one that leads to a user of Telegram.org, an encrypted messaging service. I clicked the link, opened messenger and found easy access to an account that’s uploaded and shared dozens of stolen movies.
More pirated movies found on Telegram….easy to find, thanks to YouTube.
Telegram is available as an app for Android or Apple IOS. It’s not surprising that pirated content flourishes here since apparently the messenger app is also home for Nazis and terrorists. I’ve send a DMCA notice per their FAQ to dmca@telegram.org but so far the infringing content (multiple reported films) remain accessible.
There are no easy answers to fix any of this, but making sites like YouTube more accountable for their role in disseminating pirated content by updating the antiquated DMCA seems like the place to start.