Frivolous Copyright Strikes are regularly issued to condense complaints made by third-party associates with the aim to easily remove undesirable or negative content from public view. With little reguard as to what Fair Use factually entails, YouTube has made improper use of the DMCA legislature in order to avoid legal penalties that would likely not be forthcoming.

The YouTube copyright takedown system has been the object of much discussion and open derision, and should be reformed in order to avoid further disparagement and descrimination to users seeking only to express their Constitutional rights as free consumers.

Once a user receives a takedown notification, a Copyright Strike notification frequently appears in short order. Users are given the option to submit a counter claim in order to defend their rights online, but the majority will not challenge the takedown notification due to fear of the possible repercussions of doing so. In addition, YouTube requires a user's personal information in order to carry out the counter claim, but by doing so the user consents to having their information revealed to various sources by default.

The problem with alleged copyright infringement claims is that anyone may submit them with impunity, and in challenging them, users leave themselves open to the possible commencement of hostilities by others.

Users on YouTube are not formally required to provide credit when uploading thumbnails, but when the intended use is for descriptive purpose only, this should fall well under the established "fair use" limitations.

In 2003 a case arose in the US, (Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corporation) providing and defining the relationship between thumbnails, inline linking and fair use.

Article Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_v._Arriba_Soft_Corporation

The court found that the thumbnails were, in fact, within the limits of fair use and remanded the case to the lower court for trial after issuing a revised opinion on July 7, 2003.

Clearly, revisions to YouTube policies are needed to maintain common ease-of-use within the user community, as well as to avoid contention between the users and moderation staff.

All users of the YouTube website have an obligation to address issues of this magnitude, and should not shirk the responsibility of requesting a mutually beneficial system to protect the rights of all parties concerned.

If you have confidence in this appeal, and agree entirely with what has been discussed, please make a difference by signing this petition.

Thank you for your support.