Anshe Chung YouTube video is a 'terms of use violation'

The video that depicts the griefing attack on Second Life land baroness Anshe Chung--removed by YouTube after a DMCA copyright infringement complaint--has been recategorized as a "terms of service violation."

It's not clear why. At first, Guntram Graef, husband of Anshe Chung's real-life persona Ailin Graef, attempted to convince YouTube that the video contained copyright infringement because of the unauthorized inclusion of Anshe Chung's avatar.

Users own what they create in Second Life, and that was the basis for the copyright infringement claim. But according to legal experts, the video and its images were fair use because they were taken during the griefing attack in which Anshe Chung--while She was interviewed in CNET's Second Life theater--was bombarded by 15 minutes of flying digital penises and pornographic photographs. The attack quickly became worldwide news.

But now, loading the video produces a generic YouTube message informing visitors that the video was deleted for a "terms of service violation." YouTube provides no further information.

I will keep you informed, dear readers, as I discover the reasons behind this. But it's nice to know that YouTube no longer considers this situation in the realm of DMCA, as nearly everyone involved knew that argument to be specious.

Can the networks beat YouTube?

Fox, Viacom, CBS and NBC Universal are reportedly discussing plans to build a rival to YouTube, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
Taking on YouTube

The networks had already tried going after the popular video sharing site in the legal arena. Now it appears they'll try to best the site in the marketplace.

But will they be able to succeed? Bloggers didn't seem to think so, saying that what drove YouTube's success wasn't marketing or corporate sponsorship but letting the public do what they want with content; something it's doubtful the media companies will allow.

Blog community response:

"The chances that any one of the TV networks could get it right is slim. The chance that they could get it right in a partnership is nil."
--A VC

"When they show interest to do so, it has nothing to do with a sincere desire to give users what they want. They do so because they are envious with MySpace's massive rise in power to shape musical tastes, YouTube's rise to the TV platform by default with its 100 video streams, and for the $1.65B that Google could pay without blinking. In other words, their intentions going in are anything but virtuous. When you go into something driven by one of the seven sins, you come out a loser. What's that saying? Bulls make money, bears make money, but hogs get slaughtered."
--Hipmojo.com

"It seems far better to focus on what they're good at, which is content creation, and then to take advantage of the existing popularity of YouTube (and whatever the "next" YouTube turns out to be), perhaps by signing deals with them, to drive the popularity and attendant ad revenue of their shows."
--Techdirt