MLB Advanced Media shuts down select Holliday Never Touched The Plate.com video links.
On Friday October 12th, MLB Advanced Media filed multiple copyright infringement complaints with YouTube that brought down the links to three of Holliday Never Touched the Plate’s (HNTTP) videos. The complaints were filed despite the fact that no copyright infringement took place (since the use of the original source media was permissible under normal copyright law given the context of said use.) Basically this means that, according to MLB Advanced Media, if this site wants to examine the question of if Matt Holliday missed the plate, it must somehow do so without using the original video of the slide or any related source material. Maybe I should hire a sketch artist?
In all likelihood, these copyright complaints were not filed in an episode of targeted enforcement to curb discussion of the issue on this site, but rather the complaints were almost certainly filed as part of a broader effort to scrub illegal MLB content from YouTube. I can imagine some intern having the job of searching through every video that incorporates MLB footage and simply sending copyright infringement notices to YouTube on all of them without even bothering to evaluate the context of the use of said footage. Of course the vast majority of baseball highlights that are posted on YouTube are in fact in violation of copyright regulations and MLB Advanced Media is entirely within their rights to ask that they be taken down. However by including this site’s video in the complaint, MLB Advanced Media has cast an overly broad net.
Some may wonder why this site’s videos are hosted on YouTube and not on the site server. While there are several reasons for this arrangement, two stand out. The first is that it’s cheaper. This is a non-commercial site. There are no products being sold, no paid referral links, not even google adwords. This means that the site has no income stream. Without the ability to raise cash, this site would be unable to afford the bandwidth costs that the viewing of large media files would incur. The second reason relates to usability factors. Because they are so easy to use for viewers and content posters alike, third party sites such as YouTube offer a viable alternative to self hosting video on a dedicated server.
The following affected videos are now hosted on Google as of Sunday October 14th.
Matt Holliday Never Touched the Plate
Multi-angle: Matt Holliday Never Touched the Plate
and
Matt Holliday Never Touched The Plate - Three Camera angles
I will continue to try and keep these videos up as they are essential for the public discussion of whether or not Matt Holliday touched the plate. Imagine trying to determine the answer to that question without being able to see the replays and you’ll see why they are needed.