05/12/2023
The Channel 781 News team is thrilled to share that our original Youtube channel, which was deactivated shortly before the September preliminary election, has been restored!
https://www.youtube.com/c/WalthamDATA781
We will continue to post new content on our new channel:
https://www.youtube.com/
We hope our old channel, which contains over 300 videos covering about two years of Waltham news, will be a valuable resource for anyone who wants to be engaged in the Waltham community and needs to catch up on what has happened recently with the issues that are important to them. Our debriefs, headlines, and special reports are timestamped to make it easier to find info on a specific subject. The channel also includes about 40 meetings recorded by our team, most of which would not have been recorded otherwise. Notably these include recordings of the public input sessions held by the City Council’s Master Plan Committee, which we hope will be useful as that committee continues its work.
The channel was shut down in response to copyright complaints submitted to Youtube by WCAC. Our use of clips from WCAC’s recordings was not copyright infringement because it qualifies as fair use under US copyright law. We are fortunate that one of our viewers helped us get in touch with the The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world, who agree that our use of the clips was fair use.
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, service providers such as Youtube can avoid liability by following a specific process when handling copyright complaints. This is intended, in part, to prevent bogus copyright claims from being used to undermine free speech. YouTube did not initially follow this process when we asked them to restore the videos and explained that they were fair uses. They refused to restore our channel until EFF sent them several messages.
This is a big win for transparency and public access to government in Waltham, and we are very grateful to EFF and to everyone who showed support for us in Waltham. We hope it will benefit not just Channel 781 but many future citizen journalists as we work together to make it possible for everyone in Waltham to understand and engage in our community.
