Where did that Web video go? One moment

it was up and you were emailing it to your friends,

the next it was gone. It’s not uncommon

Such “takedowns” often result from copyright concerns

YouTomb is waging war on the corporate content creators

YouTomb tracks the afterlife of nixed YouTube videos

Free Culture crusaders at MIT have started YouTomb, which scans YouTube's most popular videos and keeps track of the ones that are taken down, either by copyright holders, YouTube, or the user.

More interesting than specific videos that have been taken down is the list YouTomb has generated of who's taking down the most videos, and why.  Among media companies, TV TOKYO, Viacom Inc., Warner Bros., World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., Freemantle Media (makers of "American Idol") and NetResult (a sports copyright enforcer). 

Assuming YouTomb isn't missing too many takedowns, it's striking how infrequently videos are removed -- at this point, only a couple per hour.   As YouTube rolls out tools for copyright owners to guard their content, that number is certain to go up -- possibly a whole lot.

According to their statistics, users as a group take down more of their own videos than any media company, with almost 6,000 submitters having pulled the plug on a video after it has become popular. 

These users could be a mix of 'regular' folk and corporations, so it's hard to get a read on why people generally take down their own stuff, but it's certainly a good question.

Challenging Copyright

Where did that Web video go? One moment it was up and you were emailing it to your friends, the next it was gone. It’s not uncommon. Such “takedowns” often result from copyright concerns.

If a video-hosting service believes that the user-submitted video may violate someone else’s copyright—particularly if they’ve heard from the apparent copyright holder—the video will typically get pulled down.

Curious to learn more about which videos get pulled from YouTube and why, a student organization at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has launched YouTomb.

YouTomb is a site that tracks popular videos on YouTube and pays attention to which videos get pulled.

YouTomb also scans for hidden data on who complained about the video and how long it was up before it was removed.

Though it’s far from a perfect look at the inner workings of YouTube, YouTomb is another window into the often-invisible processes that determine what stays and what goes on the Web.

(Another example: Virgil Griffith’s WikiScanner, which casts light onto organizations that are anonymously editing Wikipedia entries.)

These efforts show how Web sites, even when they don’t provide transparency directly, often wind up publishing enough data so that others who mine it can piece together a picture.

One reason this information is sought-after: Some critics say the process at many Web services favors big corporate content creators and doesn’t leave enough room for fair-use applications permitted under copyright law.

Check out YouTomb’s data yourself here. Meanwhile, Gawker has some highlights from the list of companies and organizations frequently linked with takedowns, according to YouTomb’s data.