Shock Jock's Censorship Campaign Fails

Michael Savage attacks film company for telling the truth

The Net Beat
By Z.P. Heller

For those of you wondering why the Brave New Films YouTube account was suddenly shut down late yesterday, it was because of Michael Savage.

For those of you wondering why the Brave New Films YouTube account was suddenly shut down late yesterday, it was because of Michael Savage. That's right, the notoriously hate-filled shock jock managed to get YouTube to silence us, claiming a copyright violation over our video "Michael Savage Hates Muslims."

As a result of Savage's protests, YouTube took the extreme step of removing all Brave New Films videos from their site.

Take a look at the e-mail YouTube sent us just prior to disabling our account:

Dear Member:

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Original Talk Radio Network, Inc. claiming that this material is infringing:

Michael Savage hates Muslims: www.youtube.com

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to prevent this from happening, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Center to access the instructions.

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc.



Rest assured, we are working to resolve this issue. We will NOT yield the airwaves to a hatemonger. Nor will we tolerate being censored by YouTube over a bigot's complaints. We will keep you posted and call upon you for help if this persists.

[This was tagged on as a later update to this story:] YouTube has restored our account. But while all Brave New Films videos are available again (with the exception of "Michael Savage Hates Muslims"), the fact that YouTube removed them in the first place over one copyright complaint has caused us all sorts of trouble. We'll keep you posted as we take further action. But for now, we'll resume posting more content.

Z.P. Heller is the editorial director of Brave New Films. He has written for The American Prospect, AlterNet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Huffington Post, covering everything from politics to pop culture.