YouTuber Gets Copyright Strikes For Posting Publicly Streamed Parole Hearings

Perhaps it's a result of spending many years now writing about intellectual property matters, but it is still shocking just how little understanding there is for how fair use works in conjunction with copyright law. It's especially irritating when the folks who don't understand it come from the government itself.

Which brings us to the Louisiana parole board. Interestingly, parole hearings are all publicly streamed in a live format, but the Parole Board does not make those videos available for viewing outside of the live stream. But one YouTuber, going by the name of Mandoo, records those streams and then adds commentary to them, with the stated purpose of making the system transparent and commenting on the way the justice system works. Mandoo was also handed 52 takedowns of videos on his channel after a local news organization used them in some of its own reporting on a specific parole hearing.

After our report aired though Mandoo said 52 of his uploaded parole board hearings received copyright claims and were deleted from his page, including Thomas Cisco's hearing.

Mandoo said he had been recording the hearings for about a year without any issues.

Maybe it has something to do with the controversy behind that [Cisco's] hearing. Maybe it didn't. I don't know," He said. Mandoo is said he's concerned this could be a violation of his rights.

And I agree with him. This seems to be pretty squarely in the realm of fair use. These are public hearings that the government is streaming itself, meaning there is a serious degree of public interest here. The Parole Board, for its part, claims it doesn't make video recordings available for download in order to protect the victims" who testify in those hearings. Which, you know... doesn't make any fucking sense. They're not protected in the live stream.

Add to all of that a couple of things. First, the commentary and purpose of Mandoo's videos adds to the claim of fair use. The fact the commentary centers on government action makes the case even clearer. And there are laws outside of fair use that make all of this legal in Louisiana anyway.

Scott Sternberg, who represents media organizations across Louisiana, said besides fair use Louisiana's open meeting law makes clear the public has a right to record a meeting.

In the day of cell phones where everybody's got a camera and can take 4K or even 8K video, you know, people record stuff in public meetings all the time and yes it is perfectly legal to do so," Sternberg said.

All of which is leading to Mandoo appealing the copyright claims and takedowns with YouTube. I expect those videos will be reinstated soon as they absolutely should be, perhaps even by the time this post is published.