YouTube Gold

More gold is the CBBC 2002 Branding in that second clip mixed with the 1997 stuff for CBBC One I assume!

Another week, another warning for channel owners.

BBC Worldwide are on a DCMA blitz at the moment - or are they?

I had a claim notice that a file on my channel - an ad break originally recorded from Anglia in 1985 - contained content from BBC Worldwide; namely Series 13, Episode 7 of "Top Gear".

I've questioned the veracity of their claim - pleading "fair use", evidence of the disclaimer acknowledging fair use, that I don't gain financial profit and that copyright is held by the respective broadcasters on my channel front page - and also trying to explain as simply as I can, for what it's worth, why they're wrong.

A bit of a pain as I'd just got my account back in good standing as well.

Possibly the same source has led to Aidan Lunn's channel being shut down - although he says it was in response to a video he uploaded featuring Doctor Who material. Fear not, as he's started from scratch at http://www.youtube.com/user/AidanLunn3.

I had a similar thing from them for an Central ad break months ago - I narrowed it down to an 80s VW advert. They do use clips of old cars ads sometimes but they can't claim copyright on them, surely?

Challenge: James and Jeremy are given the challenge to create a simple but effective TV advertisement for the new VW Scirocco TDi. They are told by their advertising exec mentors that VW insists on centring their advertising on truth, and that they should take the car out to discover its truth. They find that the car is good-looking, well-furnished, and has excellent brakes and handling. However, owing to its 2.0L diesel engine, it has very little power and a very small powerband. They come back to the execs lamenting about this fact and saying that VW have ruined the Scirocco by giving it a weak engine, and the execs spin it around by suggesting that VW instead have made diesel more attractive by wrapping it up in a great package.

Jeremy insists that advertisements are about saying as little as possible with as much fanfare as possible, and his attempts incorporate explosions and severed limbs. James takes a more factual approach, discussing the various efficiency characteristics of the car. Their attempts are met with much criticism, and then they collaborate on an advert centred on a funeral. This does not go well either, and finally they remake the classic VW ad they were shown at the onset of the challenge, with a certain negative ending .

In the end, James makes an ad showing a plant's germination, implying that the Scirocco combines power and eco-friendliness. Jeremy's ad shows clips about the evacuation of Poland following the German invasion in WWII, overlaid with various news anchors' reports about the events, and finally ends with the catchphrase "VW Scirocco: Berlin to Warsaw in one tank". Jeremy asks the audience to, through a show of hands, determine which ad was the best. The audience overwhelmingly votes for Jeremy, who receives a pair of slim glasses as a prize.