Earlier today, Microsoft started issuing copyright complaints for many Windows related videos and at first, this seemed like a massive removal of content by Microsoft but it appears the video take-down requests were on accident.
Here's the deal. Microsoft noticed that users were posting stolen Windows keys in the comment sections of legitimate videos and asked to have the comments removed. Instead, YouTube pulled the entire video, rather than deleting the comment that Microsoft requested.
Here is Microsoft's official comment on the issue:
While we are still investigating the recent YouTube takedown notices, it appears some of these videos were inadvertently targeted for removal because there were stolen product keys embedded in the comments section of the videos. Our intention was not to target legitimate YouTube content and we are sorry for the impact this has had. We have already taken steps to reinstate legitimate video content and are working towards a better solution to targeting stolen IP while respecting legitimate content.”
If you are thinking that it's only those videos showing leaked content or Windows 10 features that have not been announced which have the keys in the comments, think again. Scott Hanselman, who works for Microsoft, had his "How to use Windows 8.1" video pulled.
This is one of those issues where Microsoft tried to target a very specific comment on a video and instead of removing the comment, YouTube pulled down the entire video.
The good news here is that Microsoft is working to get those videos restored and the complaints removed from the accounts that were affected. For those of you who are not aware, if your account has three copyright complaints, YouTube will ban it.
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