So here is the email I sent to Howcast yesterday-
"I just came across your site and found that my youTube videos are being used without my consent. The user aglanceatmyworld has posted many of my Whitney Sews videos. The username is the same as my youTube account (link below) but the howcast username was NOT created by me. I have read your rules and conduct policies and would appreciate if you would pull the videos and close the user account. Thanks in advance for your prompt action.
Whitney
www.youtube.com/user/aglanceatmyworld "
And I receved this response-
"Hi Whitney, We apologize for the confusion, but your videos are being embedded via YouTube. We're using YouTube's chrome-less player to display your videos and if you look closely at each video you will see the YouTube watermark on the lower right hand portion. Additionally, all of the playback statistics will be visible through your YouTube profile. If you still would like to have your videos removed from Howcast you can disable your embed code from your YouTube account. Please let us know if you have any additional questions. Best, The Howcast Team"
To which I said-
"Thank you for your quick response. However I still have a problem with how my videos are being used. Someone is posing as me by using my youTube user name to post my videos on your website. My identity is being falsified and this is a form of identity theft. The reason I can not simply disable the embedding on youTube is because I embed my videos on my personal networking sites, making them available for my family and friends. If I disable the embedding then I would lose the viewers who mean the most to me. I appreciate your help on this matter and I know that you will do the right thing by closing the account.
Whitney"
The latest email said-
"Hi Whitney, We have a system that embeds relevant how-to videos on to Howcast. With this process Howcast automatically creates profiles to give appropriate credit to the content owner. There are no other parties involved. If you would still like to have this profile removed from Howcast, we can do that, however you will no longer receive the credit. You can also create an account and I can move the videos over to it and remove the placeholder profile. Please let me know what you prefer. Thank you for your time. Best, The Howcast Team "
I haven't decided what action I'm going to take at this point. If I force them to close the account they will still use my videos but without even my username. But if I create my own account then it will be one more networking site I'll have to keep up with. I do appreciate the fast responses from howcast. The only complaint I have left is that howcast has ads posted on their site. By using my videos they are creating ad revenue for themselves by feeding off my hard work. Anyway, I'm going to talk to a couple of my friends who went through Media Ethics and Law with me and get their opinions about if I should leave the videos as is, create an account, or what.
*Thank you to those who responded to my last post*
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I took Media Ethics and Law but I don't remember much about it. I think I would create an account and have them move the videos over. Since you won't get the same user name you could do something like "the REAL Whitney Sews".
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comment above. Better to have it authorized by you, than to have the site do it on their own.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me not want to use that site again. I had used them before when viewing a baby shoe tutorial and now wonder if it was placed their legitimately or not.
Thank you for your videos Whitney, even with all you have gone through with youtube and now other video sites, you work so hard because you love your viewers and want to help spread your DIY knowledge, and for that I am very grateful.