Former chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, who calls himself “Dr. Chaps,” got our YouTube account terminated today by filing copyright complaints against a handful of our videos, resulting in several thousand of our videos being taken down.
We have filed an appeal to YouTube and hope to get our channel restored shortly. If you would like to help, you can tweet @YouTube and urge them to expedite the review process.
Klingenschmitt has been filing complaints about our YouTube videos since he announced his bid for the Colorado legislature.
We are confident that our videos are protected under Fair Use, as has always been the case in our previous experience with these sorts of copyright complaints. But this just goes to show the lengths that right-wing activists will go to in an effort to conceal their extremist rhetoric.
UPDATE: Klingenschmitt has now even issued a press release declaring victory over us:
David Takes Down Goliath — Anti-Jesus Group Right Wing Watch Terminated by YouTube After Chaplain Files Copyright Infringement Claims
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ — The anti-Christian group Right Wing Watch (RWW) had their YouTube account terminated today after repeated violations of copyright infringement, theft, and allowing followers to issue death threats against a Christian chaplain.
Former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, PhD, who is now a candidate for state representative in Colorado successfully persuaded YouTube to terminate the anti-Christian group’s account, after RWW repeatedly stole, copied, and re-published without permission as many as 90 videos created and copyrighted by Chaplain’s corporation, The Pray In Jesus Name Project.
RWW has been a thorn in the side of countless Christian ministries for years, quoting out of context ministers like James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and political leaders like Michelle Bachmann and Alan Keyes. Unless YouTube restores their account, years of defamatory RWW video archives against countless Christians have now been deleted, effectively silencing their hate-speech campaign.
“I reached out in good faith to RWW’s leadership at People for the American Way, but instead they published death threats against me,” said the Chaplain. “I asked them to stop their theft and piracy of my original content, but instead they blogged against me boasting they could steal without consequences.”
RWW even mocked the Chaplain here, claiming he didn’t know how the internet works, and daring him to file suit.
Instead, the chaplain politely notified YouTube about 6 of the 90 copyright infringement claims, which crossed their limit of 3 claims.
YouTube properly responded by terminating the RWW account and deleting all their videos, causing panic at RWW headquarters, who blamed others for their own arrogance and theft.
The Bible says pride comes before destruction. That’s a lesson for them, in how the internet works.
