Anybody know how to contact Warner Bros. Legal?

Adam Lenhardt · 05-24-2007, 08:21 PM

They just got my YouTube account permanently disabled for posting two commercials; one for the upcoming Sarah Connor Chronicles and the other for the upcoming Harry Potter movie. I know I probably won't get any satisfaction from contacting them, but I'd really like to know exactly what their copyright enforcement policy is. Surely having someone highlight advertising for your product can't be a bad thing? I'd understand if I was posting clips from episodes or something, but this is the same stuff they pay millions to put before a national audience.

Alf S · 05-24-2007, 08:29 PM

Dude posting ANYTHING that legally belongs to someone else without their permission is against the law....you may think you're helping but you're not. You're breaking the law...move on and don't go contacting them to complain.

Chris Lockwood · 05-24-2007, 08:49 PM

> you may think you're helping but you're not.

The first part of your post was true, but this part isn't.

I would just create a new YouTube account. I doubt WB legal dept is going to reply to you with anything beyond some generic comment about copyright.

Adam Lenhardt · 05-24-2007, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alf S

Dude posting ANYTHING that legally belongs to someone else without their permission is against the law....you may think you're helping but you're not. You're breaking the law...move on and don't go contacting them to complain.

I'm not contacting them to complain per say. But since they took down videos that they didn't have an ownership claim on as well ones ones they did, I want to know what their policy is so I can avoid violating it in the future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood

I would just create a new YouTube account. I doubt WB legal dept is going to reply to you with anything beyond some generic comment about copyright.

You're probably right. I wonder if anyone else has tried though.

Adam Lenhardt · 05-25-2007, 02:17 AM

After thinking it over for the night, I think I'm done with contributing to YouTube period. Seems like the safest strategy.

**HTF Ads**

Yee-Ming · 05-25-2007, 04:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt

IBut since they took down videos that they didn't have an ownership claim on as well ones ones they did, I want to know what their policy is so I can avoid violating it in the future.

Actually, they do own the ads as well. The fact that they otherwise pay other parties to broadcast it, whilst your upload is in effect free advertising, doesn't change that fact, although it does, from a layman's point of view, make no sense that they would now complain. There is some risk, if they allow third parties to infringe their rights repeatedly, of "trademark dilution", i.e. any trademarks that are infringed without complaint are lost in future, because they didn't defend the marks, although one could query how reposting their own trailer on Youtube causes trademark dilution (as compared to producing counterfeit goods).

Dennis Nicholls · 05-25-2007, 09:45 AM

Go to www.calsb.org and search for attorneys at headquarters, although this won't give you an org chart. Hint: WB is in Burbank 91522.

Adam Lenhardt · 05-25-2007, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yee-Ming

Actually, they do own the ads as well. The fact that they otherwise pay other parties to broadcast it, whilst your upload is in effect free advertising, doesn't change that fact, although it does, from a layman's point of view, make no sense that they would now complain. There is some risk, if they allow third parties to infringe their rights repeatedly, of "trademark dilution", i.e. any trademarks that are infringed without complaint are lost in future, because they didn't defend the marks, although one could query how reposting their own trailer on Youtube causes trademark dilution (as compared to producing counterfeit goods).

I wasn't talking about the promotional materials in that case. I disagree with their policy of taking down promotional materials, but I understand that Warner Bros. has the right to do it. I'm talking about them getting my other videos taken down as well — ones that don't relate even tangentally to Warner Bros. — based on an assumption of copyright infringement.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis Nicholls

Go to www.calsb.org and search for attorneys at headquarters, although this won't give you an org chart. Hint: WB is in Burbank 91522.

Thanks, Dennis. I actually found an address late last night, but after thinking over what Chris said, I'm probably not going to pursue it. No reason to make a big issue out of something that really doesn't impact me that much in the long run (It's not like I was promoting an album or movie of my own through that heavily frequented account) and could set Warner Legal on me in a more intrusive and malicious fashion.

Joseph DeMartino · 05-26-2007, 05:35 PM

Quote:

I wasn't talking about the promotional materials in that case. I disagree with their policy of taking down promotional materials, but I understand that Warner Bros. has the right to do it. I'm talking about them getting my other videos taken down as well — ones that don't relate even tangentally to Warner Bros. — based on an assumption of copyright infringement.

WB didn't do anything based on "an assumption of copyright infringement" They got your account closed on the basis of actual copyright infringement. This necessarily resulted in the removal of all your video clips, but that was a consequence of your account being closed, not any specific action by Warner Bros.

And technically, WB didn't remove your stuff at all. That was done by YouTube. And they did it because you violated their terms of use:

Quote:

C. In connection with User Submissions, you further agree that you will not: (i) submit material that is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material and to grant YouTube all of the license rights granted herein

Warner Bros. called their attention to the fact that you had done so, and YouTube took action. You can try contacting WB legal if it makes you feel better, but it seems to me your gripe is with YouTube, not WB, and YouTube was acting well within its rights.

Bummer, but there you have it.

Regards,

Joe