YouTomb Site Keeps Data About Videos Removed From YouTube

Posted on July 7, 2008

Everyday numerous videos are removed from YouTube. Often videos are removed because of an alleged copyright violation. A judge recently sided with Viacom in its request for the records of every video YouTube users have watched including IP data. Wired says Google was also ordered to provide "copies of all videos that it has taken down for any reason." The process by which YouTube removes videos is complex but a site called YouTomb is dedicated to tracking the videos removed from YouTube because of a copyright complaint. It is an interesting compilation and includes videos that have been on YouTube for over two years before they were taken down. YouTomb says it is a research project by MIT Free Culture.

YouTomb is a research project by MIT Free Culture that tracks videos taken down from YouTube for alleged copyright violation.

More specifically, YouTomb continually monitors the most popular videos on YouTube for copyright-related takedowns. Any information available in the metadata is retained, including who issued the complaint and how long the video was up before takedown. The goal of the project is to identify how YouTube recognizes potential copyright violations as well as to aggregate mistakes made by the algorithm.

The videos discussed on YouTomb cannot be viewed. It is merely a research project to find out more information about how YouTube goes about removing videos.

Update: The YouTomb site is no longer available.

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