Copyright Extortion Scammers

[engine]

Scammers are taking advantage of Google's YouTube system to threaten to shut down creators channels over copyright claims unless the creative pays a ransom to a bitcoin wallet.

Copyright strikes serve an important purpose for YouTube, preventing protected material — from pop songs to movie clips — from being used without authorization. YouTubers served with one or two strikes automatically have the offending videos deleted, and can also have certain channel features, like the ability to monetize, restricted in the long term. Getting those privileges back can take months of work, especially for smaller channels that are often overlooked in favor of their larger or more popular counterparts.

[theverge.com...]

[graeme_p]

There have been lots, and lots, of attempts to use copyright in sleazy ways to extract money. This is the first I have heard of that is this blatently criminal - I read about it here first: [torrentfreak.com...]

This is pretty sleazy too: [torrentfreak.com...]

[edited by: graeme_p at 1:00 pm (utc) on Feb 12, 2019]

[engine]

I suspect the scammers are searching for any opportunity, and this is just the latest. I dare'nt speculate on the next to save giving them ideas.

[blend27]

I'll give one up: 2020.