YouTube has blocked and reversed several false copyright takedowns that were filed by Vincent Nicotra, the former web producer of journalist Chris Hansen, against the YouTubers Mista GG and BakedSalmon.
Mista GG brought the false takedown notices to the attention of YouTube yesterday and added that Nicotra and his company VEN Interactive Media had “abused the copyright system DOZENS of times by filing fraudulent takedowns.”
After investigating, YouTube denied the takedowns that were filed against Mista GG and also reinstated BakedSalmon’s videos which had initially been removed in response to Nicotra’s false copyright takedown notices.
YouTube added that it had “reached out to the claimant to try to prevent this in the future.”
Mista GG celebrated the result even though YouTube didn’t appear to fully “drop the hammer” on Nicotra by preventing him from filing further copyright claims.
Before YouTube’s prevention and reversal of these false takedown notices, Hansen had apologized for the copyright claims filed by Nicotra and asked YouTubers to let him know if there were any lingering issues which he would try to address.
However, several YouTubers have reported that Nicotra continued filing false copyright takedown notices against their videos after Hansen’s apology.
With the support of YouTube, Mista GG is predicting that this is the end of the false takedowns from Nicotra and that “Chris Hansen’s ex-moderator will scurry off at this point.”
