Halifax musician and songwriter Dave Carroll of United Breaks Guitars. The World Wrestling Entertainment had his famous video removed from YouTube, claiming copyright infringement. (Chronicle Herald)
Halifax musician and songwriter Dave Carroll, of United Breaks Guitars fame, is relieved he won’t have to climb into the wrestling ring.
“I was threatening to start taking anabolic steroids ’cause I’m only 175 pounds. If I have to go up to those guys, I have to gain some weight,” he joked Monday.
Carroll’s famous music video, in which he laments the customer service he received from United Airlines after its baggage handlers broke his guitar in 2008, was back on YouTube Monday morning.
It had been taken down around midday Saturday, due to a complaint by World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., a professional wrestling and sports entertainment company, which is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange
The issue “is not completely resolved but it is getting there,” Carroll said Monday
It all started a couple of days ago when Carroll received an email from Google notifying him that it was temporarily taking down the first of his three United Breaks Guitars videos because of a claim by World Wrestling Entertainment that it was an infringement of its brand or copyright.
“There was basically no more information than that,” said Carroll. “I was very confident that there was no infringement.”
He was told he would have to start a counterclaim process to get the video reinstated.
The video, which has had almost 12.5 million views on YouTube over the last few years, couldn’t be viewed for part of Saturday or all of Sunday. It was back up Monday, shortly after Carroll called World Wrestling Entertainment and spoke with its head of public relations.
“He said he was very familiar with the video, which was kind of funny,” Carroll said.
“He said as far as he knew, there would be no issues with copyright and infringement. He didn’t know why (it happened) but he would be looking into it to get it reversed.”
Carroll had talked about his plight earlier Monday on social media sites.
“It was starting to heat up, with interest and comments from people all over the world.”
It was then he decided he probably should just call World Wrestling Entertainment.
“I thought this morning, why don’t I just call the guy? It goes to show that sometimes people are so used to confrontation that they don’t go to the obvious route.”
Carroll said the spokesman told him it was likely a clerical error and apologized for the inconvenience. Carroll credits the company with acting quickly but still wants some answers.
“I’d still like to know, how did it happen? The ramifications of an error like that shouldn’t be that big.
“If there were people that didn’t like what you were saying politically, I guess, (they) could have stuff taken down just by claiming copyright infringement.”
Google’s media office did not immediately respond to an enquiry about the incident. A spokesperson for World Wrestling Entertainment could not be reached for comment.
Carroll became a consumer hero after making three videos chronicling his experience with United. He has since written a book about the subject.
(Source: This article originally appeared in the Halifax Chronicle Herald. No infringement is intended or implied as this site is used for educational purposes.)
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