Punk label SST records created a backlash from fans last week after it asked YouTube to remove its copyrighted videos from the website, which accidentally resulted in videos from bands not affiliated with SST to be removed.
Now some YouTube users are calling the label “Copyright Nazis.”
In fact, one angry YouTube user even created a channel dedicated to criticizing the record label, which has been home to such influential punk and indie bands as the Minutemen, Black Flag, Dinosaur Jr, and Sonic Youth.
The label, founded by Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn, petitioned YouTube to remove the videos through a Digital Millennium Copyright Act request, according to Billboard. But videos from bands like the Adolescents, who never had a release on SST, were also removed. This has lead some punk rock fans to claim that Ginn has “sold out.”
Ginn told the LA Weekly on Friday that he was against YouTube’s advertising policies which “monetized” his videos, but he’s not to blame for the non-SST removals.
Apparently what happened was some YouTube users who violated the site’s “three strike” rule had their entire account shutdown, SST videos and all.
This SST kerfuffle is just one of the latest in a long line of controversies over the DMCA, which was signed in to law in 1998.
http://youtu.be/vcX1Tz0JyW4
