Dotcom claims German performing rights group pulled Mega launch video

Kim Dotcom has hit out against GEMA, a German performing rights group, for apparently having his video of the Mega.co.nz launch ceremony pulled from Youtube on copyright grounds. The video has now been reinstated, but that hasn't stopped him tweeting about it.

Incredible: The GEMA in Germany took down our #Mega launch press conference video from Youtube for copyright claims.

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) January 23, 2013

This message appeared about five hours after the video was posted. Having been reinstated some hours ago, it has a very small viewer count, just under 2,000 but an impressive number of likes at 662. That's nearly 30 per cent of all visitors hitting the like button. Compare that to something ridiculous like Gangnam style, with its over one billion views and nearly seven million likes. That's not even one per cent. As the Register points out, something's a little fishy there.

Apparently it didn't take long for Dotcom to get the video back online, just a simple counter claim to Youtube:

I filed a counter claim with Youtube and the video is back online. GEMA can expect mail from our legal team. Copyright madness.

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) January 23, 2013

He also asked GEMA via Twitter why there was a problem in the first place.

Dear GEMA, all songs in the #Mega press conference are my content. And the artist who performed LIVE gave us permission. WTF?

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) January 23, 2013

There's been no mention by GEMA of this take down or any communication with Dotcom at the time of writing. Either way the issue was obviously resolved very quickly.

Mega launched just last week, but has already seen exponential growth and has garnered more traffic than rivals Dropbox and Rapidshare.

KitGuru Says: I'm not suggesting Dotcom had anything to do with the takedown, but it's certainly drawn some attention to a video that wasn't getting much in the way of it before.

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