Happy Birthday to me! Having a birthday right during middle break, I usually try to avoid working on it, but this time, I got all the files back for Freeman’s Mind, so I decided to finish it off, so here it is! This is going to be the last video for this year as I am still sick and can’t do any more voicework until I recover. My original plan was to have an additional FM and DGN episode this month, but that will just have to wait until later. The good / bad news is I have so many other things I can work on instead that it may be a mixed blessing. I’ll enjoy the not being sick part when that happens though.

Also at this point, Youtube’s demonetization bot is in full swing without much recourse around it, I’ll discuss that more on the next videochat. I’m willing to bet the video will be flagged as not suitable for all advertisers within a few hours of this post, then marked as suitable for all advertisers after I manually submit it for review. Youtube is not wise.

Just barely made it before Christmas! I was intending to get this episode out on the 23rd, but it didn’t exactly work out that way. I think this is a relatively good episode, although I don’t know what happened, but I think my vocals might be more grating than usual. I swear, it feels like on the microphone if I talk normally, then I sound placid and dull, and if I speak up then it sounds like I’m only shouting. It’s something I hope to improve, but I honestly didn’t have any spare time to try and make it better. My apologies if this one is harder than usual to listen to. To top it off, I’m actually recovering from being sick, so it’s possible I may have to put a hold on new videos until my throat recovers.

The next Freeman’s Mind is already recorded however, so that will be ready as soon as I get the sound effects. Have a merry Christmas!

Here’s the much delayed next FM episode! Even though this one took a long time to come out, only part of that was from my end. This means I’ve been able to work on the next Freeman’s Mind in the meantime, which I’m hoping to have out before Christmas. More stuff coming!

Hey everyone,

more work is being done on the videos, but in the meantime, I’m getting trouble from the BBC and a record label for videos Ross’s Game Dungeon: Potty Pigeon and Ross’s Game Dungeon: Quarantine, respectively. In both cases, they’re laying copyright claims on my videos for the following:

-In Potty Pigeon I used a small segment from the show “All Creatures Great And Small” in order to illustrate the origin of the theme music from the game.
-In Quarantine I played some of the track “The Driver Is You” by The Fauves since it was part of the soundtrack to the game and I wanted to discuss the lyrics to the song.

In both cases, this use of copyright material is 100% Fair Use. Both instances were short clips, were used for illustrative purposes to make a point about the source content, and did not detract from the commercial value of the source material. It doesn’t get clearer than this. Since receiving those claims, I’ve disputed them, however in both cases, they’ve come back reinstating their claim. My next course of action would be to appeal the rejected dispute, however I have to pause on this, because if I’m not careful I can be sued over this.

I’ve followed this guide in the past for all erroneous copyright claims made against me over the years as it contains a lot of good information:

However, this is the first time I’ve had to escalate a rejected dispute and while that would normally not be of concern to me, it just hit me that I’m living in Poland and not the USA, so trying to claim this on USA Fair Use law might get me into trouble. From Youtube’s own appeal form:

“You originally disputed the claim based on fair use. Please explain why your use of content is subject to fair use, fair dealing, or a similar exception to copyright protection under the law of your country.”

While laws are not equal for every country, if any Youtubers who have experience with this or copyright law experts in the European Union have advice on how I should proceed in order to reclaim my videos, please let me know ([email protected]). I imagine the procedure is similar as in the United States, but I need to know specifically which law applies to this, since the DMCA is only for the USA. It’s no secret what a mess Youtube’s copyright system is and how it enables companies to essentially bully video creators as the copyright holders are clearly not doing their homework on this, but I haven’t had to go through the full legal process like this before. It probably won’t be the last.

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ADHD Version: Ross has bogus copyright claims against him, but he only knows how to handle this in the USA, not Europe. He could use help with that.

Here’s the December chat with fans. The main thing to know is more Freeman’s Mind is coming. Other info in the Youtube description.

Also, here’s a link to a cameo I had in Lazy Game Reviews a week or so ago asking about how I run old games. I posted it on twitter, but forgot to put it here. I appear around 26:00, my voice sounded a little distorted since I think Clint ran a compressor on my audio.