Have just got off the phone with Ohna and it seems that Google/Youtube’s behaviour is even more absurd than I thought…
Ohna’s film Son wasn’t just posted by her production company. Oh no:
- YouTube vetted a large number of independent film-makers for their “screening room” project and approached Ohna to ask her to participate
- Not only was Son hand-picked by Google, it was reviewed by an approval board and checked for copyright
- In an effort to promote the filmmakers, YouTube proposed that each film have a “buy now” button
So let me get this straight. You go out and find the best films. You have lengthy conversations with the producers of each. You check each for quality and appropriateness of content and verify that each producer owns the right to broadcast the work.
Then, you nail them with a copyright-theft cease-and-desist and take down the film you’ve just spent months organising the screening of.
Never mind that this is just the worst possible PR job in the world. Isn’t this frankly just downright stupid?