The first account, XenuTV, was suspended by YouTube in early February after Viacom filed two DMCA requests.
The first DMCA was for a Colbert clip on Scientology, “Scientology: Wag of the Finger”, submitted February 2, 2007.
The second was for another Colbert clip, “Scientology: Is Will Smith a Scientologist?”, submitted January 15, 2008.
Within an hour of the second take down notice, Bunker received another one, this time from the Church of Scientology, for the infamous Tom Cruise video which he hosted on a private account.
Both account (xenutv and the private account) were taken down before Bunker even had the time to comply with the request.
You will remember that Viacom is suing Google (which acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion last year) for 1 billion dollars for copyright infringement. Google therefore pays particular attention to these kind of demands.
Mark Bunker started over by opening another YouTube account, xenutv1, and uploaded only his own self produced clips. About a week later, the Anonymous movement started in response to YouTube’s removal of the Tom Cruise tape. It is at this time that Mark made his historic video in which he urged Anonymous to choose legal ways of protesting Scientology rather than hacking sites of the CoS. This boosted his xenutv1 audience from 3,000 subscribers to more than 10,000.
What Mark didn't know, however, was that because his first xenutv account was canceled, he was not supposed to create a second account. This went unnoticed until April, when someone drew the attention of YouTube on the existence of this new account. Because of this, and because Mark was a "repeat infringers" (two notices from Viacom and one from the CoS), Google took down xenutv1 as well. Google would not say who the informer was but claimed that this person did not represent Scientology. The fact that two days earlier YouTube had banned (then reinstated) a channel run by Tory Christman, another outspoken Scientology critic, was deemed as coincidental.
A wave of protest to YouTube and Viacom by Anonymous and Scientology critics ensued, but YouTube would not restore the channel unless Viacom retracted its complain, which it wouldn't do either.
YouTube however invited Bunker to file counter-notifications for the Viacom clips, and he did so in mid-May, asserting that the “mistake or misidentification of the material” was in not recognizing its use as fair. From then on, Viacom had two weeks to either retract its complain or file suit. Lawyer for Viacom called Bunker and advised they won't make an issue over this. When they failed to file suit past the two weeks delay, YouTube reinstated both xenutv and xenutv1.
Links:
- DMCA “Repeat Infringers”: Scientology Critic’s Account Reinstated after Counter-Notification
- Mark Bunker video announcing his return and explaining the background
- Mark Bunker blog with background of events
- Anti-Scientology crusader vaporized from YouTube
