YouTube censorship of discussion of coup attempt in Russia masked as copyright policing

On June 24, 2023, the Wagner Group mercenary force moved from the battlefield in Ukraine, where it served as an adjunct to the Russian military in the Special Military Operation in Ukraine, into Russia, stationing in Rostov-on-Don. From there, the force began a march to Moscow. The action was taken, according to the head of the mercenary force, to remedy what he called "corruption" which he claimed without providing particulars.

The action eventually subsided after negotiations with the president of Belarus.

At the time of the action by the mercenary force, NATO was deeply involved in an operation called "Air Defender 23" which was - and still ongoing - the largest aerial force deployment in the history following World War Two. Led by the same German air force that invaded the Soviet Union 82 years ago this past Thursday, causing ultimately some twenty-seven million Soviet (mostly Russian) deaths, the drill involved 250 aircraft and a core military force of 10,000 troops. It began June 12 and was slated, officially, to end this past Friday.

The exercise on Russia's border was supposed to send a "significant message" to Moscow - according to Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz of the German Luftwaffe - "that we can defend ourselves."

In addition to the 10 days of operations of the massive aerial armada which led up to the apparent coup attempt on Saturday, there were reports from several sources at multiple locations in the US of military mobilization for overseas movement.

In that context, I appeared on PressTV Saturday at approximately 1:00 p.m. EDT - see video here - and suggested that the actions taken by the mercenary group had been done in coordination with the NATO exercises and was likely engineered by the US.

I posted a video of the news/opinion piece on my YouTube page Sunday morning New York time, and received notice that it was "blocked" by YouTube, meaning the only way anyone would be able to see it is if they already had the link to it. YouTube claimed there was a copyright claim for 55 seconds of footage of the 9 minute 19 second report. The footage was video apparently taken of the mercenary group inside Russia that was shown in a split-screen with PressTV's Moscow correspondent, Marina Kortunova, reporting from Russia's capital about what appeared to be a march on the city by the mercenary group. According to YouTube, that 55 seconds of b-roll is the property of Radio Television Canaria, S.A., a media group based in the Canary Islands.

There is something called "Fairness Doctrine" which carves out a safe space from copyright law for a variety of uses. Certainly, the incidental use of generic scenes of public highways with an illegal hostile military force in order to report upon and interpret an apparent attempt at regime change in a nuclear power falls into this category. If Radio Television Canaria, S.A. disagrees, then I'd like to ask them to produce the release from the Russian government for them to capture and claim property in the images of Russian state property. I'd also like to explore the property rights arrangements between the renegade mercenary force in the midst of criminal treasonous action and Radio Television Canaria, S.A. whereby the latter was able to acquire property rights in the images of the former.