Friday, April 21, 2017

YouTube sides with me in failed takedown attempt by medical group re: video clip of Dr. Salim Yusuf praising author/journalist Nina Teicholz

Via Top Cardiologist Blasts Nutrition Guidelines by veteran medical journalist Larry Husten PhD on his CardioBrief site, February 27, 2017
One of the world’s top cardiologists says that many of the major nutrition guidelines have no good basis in science.

“I’m not a nutrition scientist and that may be an advantage because every week in the newspaper we read something is good for you and the same thing the next week is bad for you,” said Salim Yusuf, MD, DPhil,(McMaster University), at Cardiology Update 2017, a symposium presented by the European Society of Cardiology and the Zurich Heart House.

Yusuf presented evidence that many of the most significant and impactful nutrition recommendations regarding dietary fats, salt, carbohydrates, and even vegetables are not supported by evidence.
...Yusuf volunteered a strong endorsement for Nina Teicholz, author of The Big Fat Surprise, who has been heavily criticized by the nutrition establishment for her defense of dietary fat. “She shook up the nutrition world but she got it right,” said Yusuf.
Zurich Heart House (ZHH) posted a YouTube video of Dr. Yusuf's 20-minute lecture which triggered a March 2 MedPage Today article by Crystal Phend* about some nutrition professionals throwing snit fits about it.

By then ZHH had taken down the video of the lecture from their YouTube site -- click here for their explanation of what happened -- but copies were popping up on other YouTube accounts.

I've reported about various attempts by credentialed professionals to censor Ms. Teicholz, so I downloaded a copy of Dr. Yusuf's lecture, edited out a clip in which Dr. Yusuf praises her work and posted it to my YouTube account.

Last month Zurich Heart House filed a copyright violation claim against me with YouTube which resulted in the clip being taken down.

I promptly responded with a counter-notification that the 50-second clip was protected under Fair Use laws.

On May 11, I received an e-mail (see below) from ZHH manager Regula Schneider asking me to cooperate with their takedown request and informing me that "We have not initiated legal steps."

Was that a legal saber being rattled? Who knows?

I didn't reply because if ZHH wished to properly contest my counter-notification, they should have done so via YouTube, not by contacting me directly. 

In any event, apparently ZHH dropped whatever they were rattling because today YouTube found in my favor and the clip's online again.







* Ms. Phend failed to provide Dr. Yusuf the opportunity to respond to his critics, so I blogged a March 20 item in which journalism ethics experts commented on that aspect of her reporting.

Addendum (4/22/17): This is the second time I've prevailed in a YouTube copyright violation complaint. In 2014, Boise, ID, TV station KTVB tried to take down a 20-second clip I posted that came from a newscast in which a local firefighter stated that he had performed the Heimlich maneuver on a drowning victim. In my counter-claim I insisted the clip was protected under Fair Use laws. YouTube agreed with me.