As you may have already heard through the grapevine, YouTube is implementing new systems to bring themselves into compliance with a law not many of us have heard about, COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act). This has caused quite a stir in the entire YouTube community, even outside of pony, as not only labeling videos as kid friendly can drastically reduce revenue but also features on YouTube vids, and impose a possible hefty fine of $42,000 for each video on a channel in non-compliance.
Understandably, YouTube creators have started taking down some of their videos in order to avoid the fine or because they feel defeated by the new system. In this case, a classic pony musician, Sim Gretina, has made their pony videos and other 'childish' videos private on their YouTube channel.
EqD isn't here to provide legal advice on how to handle this situation for creators, but for those of you who have not heard of what is going on recently we thought it best to warn everyone that it might be best to start backing up your favorite pony vids and music in case more and more creators start pulling their videos.
One thing to keep in mind about COPPA is that this law isn't new, having been enacted in 2000 and revised in 2013, it's only affecting us now due to a roughly 150 million dollar fine put on YouTube for being non-compliant. With how vague the law is, many different video types on YouTube appear to be at risk and it looks to possibly be the next big thing affecting our viewing experiences on the site. We're unfortunately going to have to see how this plays out.
For now, as I said, make backups of your favorites before they may be gone forever. It would be a shame to lose so much pony history (and other YouTube history) if videos start to go private or are removed entirely.
Thanks to Maik for the heads up about the Sim Gretina situation and the number of pony artists who have brought this new situation to our attention.
Sim Gretina Source
Update: Sim Gretina has put all his videos back up till the end of the year to see how this plays out, find his tweet after the break!
Twitter: Calpain
