YouTube: This Video Is Unavailable In Your Country
YouTube should be more transparent about why videos are made unavailable. Some videos just say unavailable in your country, without providing an appropriate reason.
By. Jacob
Edited: 2020-08-10 09:01
I have recently noticed that a lot of videos on YouTube is labeled as unavailable without YouTube giving a proper reason as to why the video is not available. That is a problem, since it could allow YouTube (or rightsholders) to block and censor content for illegitimate reasons.
Usually we can tell who blocked the video, since it will say something along the lines of:
Video unavailable
This video contains content from KODA_CS. It is not available in your country.
This still does not give users a reasonable argument or reason as to why the video was blocked, which is a problem; but at least it tells us who blocked the video.
KODA is a rightsholder in Denmark that represents musicians, and makes sure that artists are paid. Presumably if their name shows up on a blocked video, it means that they have blocked the video because of licensing issues.
Often I also see videos that are blocked without any explanation at all, and that is extremely problematic, since users got no reasonable way to find out why the video was blocked. Was it censored by YouTube or was it blocked by the copyright owner?
Video unavailable
This video is not available in your country.
Screenshot follows:
Video unavailable
When a video is made unavailable, then it is also important that users are informed why the video is not available. How are we to trust that YouTube did not just block the video for malicious reasons if they are not transparent about why the video was blocked?
Some videos does have a bit of additional information, possibly hinting at why the video was blocked; but this information is still not enough. If a video is blocked by a copyright holder, then it is also important that users are informed about who blocked the video, and why they decided to block the video; If a copyright holder can not supply a proper reason, then it should not be possible for them to block the video.
This video is not available in your country
Sometimes videos will only be blocked in specific countries; and in such cases it is also important that users are informed appropriately about why the video was blocked in their country, as well as about which other countries that the video is blocked in.
Transparency, in general, is important in these cases if users are to trust that they will be treated fairly; both by copyright holders and YouTube as a platform.
Links
- Video isn't available in my country/region - support.google.com
Tell us what you think: