Marcelo Landicho a.k.a. “Professional Heckler” has shed light on the suspension of his Twitter account, saying that it happened because of a copyright infringement issue.
Landicho said in a statement released on Facebook that Universal Music flagged one of his posts for copyright infringement.
From @HecklerForever about the suspension of his Twitter account. pic.twitter.com/ritpqYevIR
— elizabeth angsioco (@bethangsioco) July 27, 2018
The post, however, was deleted but screenshots of Landicho’s post was shared on Twitter and disseminated for clarification.
Previously, his second account suspension was attributed to the possibility that “die-hard Duterte supporters” had mass reported his account following a satirical post titled “LEAKED: Duterte’s SONA 2018.”
A Twitter account named “UNITED DDS” claimed responsibility for the act.
Salamat po sa lahat ng mga nakilahok para masuspend uli si @HecklerForever
Isunod na po natin si @PinoyAkoBlog
??? pic.twitter.com/6IufDzlUrG— United DDS (@WeAreUnitedDDS) July 24, 2018
“Professional Heckler” is a vocal political critic in social media. When his account got suspended for the second time, various personalities decried Twitter for the act.
Landicho wrote:
“According to Twitter, they received a takedown notice from Universal Music against a tweet I posted several weeks (or months? I forgot) ago. An Alanis Morissette music video. Head Over Feet, to be specific.”
As for the music video, he explained that there are times he would “take a break from posting political tweets and tweet something else — a music video, a trivia and a puzzle, a review of the favorite TV series, etc.”
“The issue was copyright infringement, according to Twitter. It took down the ‘Alanis’ tweet. That’s fine with me. But the suspension stays.”
“Isn’t it ironic?”
He also found out about the “UNITED DDS” attributing the suspension to their own doing. Landicho continued:
“Twitter suspends accounts permanently. Mine has been suspended temporarily. I’ll only create a new account if the suspension becomes permanent.”
“I’m taking full responsibility for what happened. It’s not you, ka-DDS. It’s Alanis.”
The political critic promised his supporters that he’ll “be back soon.”
Twitter’s rules on copyright infringement
It’s not known whether Landicho uploaded the link of the music video itself or has shared a link through Twitter that was originally from another website like YouTube.
Twitter allows anyone to report a post that has been perceived as violating or infringing one’s copyright. According to their policy, they review such cases following the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
DMCA is an anti-piracy law that regulates copyrights in the United States. It became effective in October 1998 and it aims “to protect access to or copying of a copyrighted work.”
The law also “gives web hosts and Internet service providers a safe harbour from copyright infringement claims.”
It cited that a “takedown” occurs under the following hypothetical situation:
- Joe puts a video with a copy of Mark’s brand’s new unreleased track on YouTube.
- Mark, searching the Internet, finds Joe’s copy.
- Saul, Mark’s lawyer, sends a letter to YouTube’s designated agent.
- YouTube takes the video stream down and they advise Joe of this.
- Joe now has the option of sending a counter-notice to YouTube, if he feels the video was taken down unfairly.
- If Joe does file a valid counter-notice, YouTube notifies Mark, then waits up to 14 business days for a lawsuit to be filed by Saul.
- If Saul does not file a lawsuit, then YouTube must put the material back up. — Art by Uela Badayos
