DNC livestream on YouTube blocked on copyright grounds?
YouTube spokesperson says block message appeared in error, but video has since been marked as private.
Those hoping to catch the livestream of First Lady Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention on YouTube or BarackObama.com can forget about it -- it appears to have been blocked.
The event's official stream was yanked due to copyright infringement concerns, according to a message that briefly appeared on YouTube:
This video contains content from WMG, SME, Associated Press (AP), UMG, Dow Jones, New York Times Digital, The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA), Warner Chappell, UMPG Publishing and EMI Music Publishing, one or more of whom have blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.
However, a YouTube spokesperson the the message appeared in error.
"After Tuesday's live stream ended, YouTube briefly showed an incorrect error message on the page hosting the completed live stream instead of the standard 'This event is complete' message," a YouTube spokesperson told CNET. "There was no copyright violation on the video and neither the live stream nor any of the channel's videos were affected."
The DemConvention2012 YouTube video was subsequently marked private, while the videos at BarackObama.com asked viewers to "please stand by" while a digital clock counted down from 15 hours.
Content on YouTube is frequently flagged by YouTube's pre-emptive content filters, which automatically blocks content that appears to match copyrighted video content uploaded by media giants. That was the driving force that knocked video of the Curiosity rover's dramatic landing on Mars from the video site last month, as well as a livestream of the Hugo science awards earlier this week that included short clips of copyrighted material.
Updated 9/5 at 4:50 p.m. PT with YouTube statement.