Hello i am in California. Is it possible to sue Youtube for violating the Fair Use Act? they shut down my channel on toxic mold education. they never sent me a reason why or gave me a chance to correct any thing that i missed. I did use some news stories that were aired on tv but i always put "fair use notice" on the beginning of my videos.
What you think?
Thanks
Eli
There is no "Fair Use Act." Fair use is an affirmative defense to a copyright infringement claim. It is not permission to use copyright-protected material. It is a "yes, I infringed but it is permitted" defense.
If a copyright holder believes your unauthorized use of their copyrighted material is infringing on the exclusive rights they hold in the work, they can sue you.
YouTube is a privately-owned site and, as such, the site can choose what is put on the site, and what is not. They can open and close accounts as they choose.
YouTube is protected from suit under the Communications Decency Act's section 230 if they do not help create the content that is said to violate a law (infringement, defamation, invasion of privacy, etc) or encourage its publication. And, in order for YouTube to protect themselves from liability for copyright-infringing content published on their site (in violation of their terms and conditions), YouTube must remove any content claimed by a copyright holder to be infringement when YouTube receives a DMCA takedown notice from the copyright holder.
You have no legal action to pursue against YouTube. You potentially could challenge your rights to have used the copyright-protected material on YouTube with a fair use defense, however, if the copyright holder sues you. The court will then decide if your use was a fair use of copyrighted material or an infringement on the copyright holder's rights, based on several different factors.
The factors a court looks at when looking at a fair use defense will include the purpose and character of the use of material, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion of the work used in relation to its whole, and the effect of the use upon the market for or value of the work.
