M-A Chronicle Forces YouTube & Vimeo to Remove "Killing America"
Good morning,
Only several hours after premiering, Killing America has been removed from Youtube and Vimeo for alleged copyright violations. This is nothing short of weaponized censorship and legal action will be taken.
On the Youtube form, the complainant is listed as The M-A Chronicle, the student newspaper for Menlo Atherton High School and on the Vimeo form it is a student who writes for the same newspaper. I'm not a lawyer but if the student is a minor, how can minor legally file a challenge to my film? It was also a minor that took down the trailer from Vimeo.
We know teachers oversee these student newspapers and bear responsibility. The journalism advisor for this paper is teacher John McBlair. Why is he allowing his students to commit journalism malpractice by ignoring the Fair Use doctrine which allows copyrighted footage to be used under certain guidelines -- guidelines that we easily met? I've already outlined my Fair Use argument in my responses to Youtube and Vimeo and in my Substack so the newspaper is aware of my argument and has chosen to ignore it.
Further up the chain, why is the principal of Menlo-Atherton High School, Mr. Karl Losekoot, allowing this under his watch? (Remember, he bashed the film without seeing it.) What about the Sequoia Union High School Board? Where are the adults?
At this point, one must ask if this is ideological activism? That is why pleading ignorance will not be accepted here.
In any case, it appears that these claims against the film and trailer have been filed by minors and with malicious intent to suppress the film since Youtube asks complainants to consider the Fair Use argument before filing such a complaint.
This newspaper is located in an unfathomably wealthy neighborhood with vast resources, but we cannot afford to let them censor us -- they have cost us harm and we will respond legally to restore Killing America to its rightful platforms.
As of now, you can watch the film here on Substack, X (Twitter), and Rumble. Here is the link to yesterday’s Substack which contains these links.
All my best,
Eli
I was able to watch it yesterday before it was taken down. Good work. Keep up the good fight.
I watched in on X and was very impressed! And in keeping with my vow to support any artist whom the Woke ideologues try to silence, I have upgraded my subscription to your Substack to "paid." We may not have a lot of power over these people at this point in history but if we, the all-too-often-silent majority, continue to vote with our wallets--and support the excellent work of people like you--we can win this battle.