YouTube Sentences Copyright Offenders to School

In many countries around the world, if you break the law by stealing copyrighted content you can be sentenced to prison and heavily fined. But, according to Nick Bolton at the Bits Blog at nytimes.com,  if Google catches you breaking copyright laws, the punishment is more akin to being caught smoking in the boys room in high school: You’re forced to take an online class at YouTube’s Copyright School.

Copyright School isn’t your normal edition of detention.

Copyright violators are asked to watch a four-and-a-half minute minute video and then required to take a multiple choice quiz that asks questions pertaining to copyright. One question, for example, asks if music videos and photographs fall under copyright protection.

The copyright video is hosted by Russell, a cartoon pirate character, who inadvertently breaks copyright laws by taping scenes from a film in a movie theater and then uploading the clips to YouTube.

Read More.