An active YouTuber is convinced that NBC used video footage he’d posted on his popular account without his permission.
YouTube user Taofledermaus was relaxing at home on Friday, July 18 when messages started rolling in from other users, he says in his video explaining the situation. He then turned on the TV and, sure enough, saw his own footage of rat traps being used as B roll on Dateline.
“The producers for this show never contacted me and got my permission to use my content,” he said. “In the past I’ve had several of my video clips on different media including television and the producers have always contacted me and gotten permission to use my content.”
The user also claims NBC cropped out his watermarks when using his footage. He also says he tried to contact the network through their Google+ page and they ignored him. (In NBC’s defense, though, we’re pretty sure everyone ignores messages received through Google+.)
“To put it lightly, I’m a little disgusted with the producers of NBC and their lack of courtesy,” the user says in the video.
Taofledermaus has 244,225 subscribers on YouTube and “is a channel based on curiosity,” the About page says. “What if.. we take one common household object, and combine it with another. How will it act flying faster than the speed of SOUND out of a shotgun? How will it react to heat, cold, or chemicals? [all sic]”
The story is currently gaining speed on Reddit and being featured on the front page.
UPDATE: A rep from NBC issued the following statement to Betabeat: “Some of the material was used as evidence at the trial that was the subject of the Dateline report. The brief excerpts were a legally permissible fair use.” Meanwhile, Jeff Heeszel Taofledermaus says only one of the clips of his seen on Dateline was evidence in the trial and others were used unfairly.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hJsVkbJp3U&w=560&h=315]
