KARACHI – The official YouTube account of Government of Pakistan has been terminated after it received complaints accusing the channel of copyright infringement.
The most notable of the complaints was of a vlogger, Irfan Junejo, who is known for making video content focusing on Pakistan’s unique and picturesque areas.
https://twitter.com/irfanjunejo/status/959000843172368384
Junejo, in his tweets, accused the federal government of stealing his video ‘The Junejo guide to Naran’ and publishing on its official YouTube channel.
Junejo says his footage was also used without permission by the government’s YouTube channel; however, the account was not terminated on his copyright claim.
https://twitter.com/irfanjunejo/status/959162508199301120
“The account was not terminated due to my copyright claim,” the vlogger said, adding “a lot of other people saw their work stolen in their videos and YouTube shut down their account”.
“My claim wasn’t even accepted by YouTube.” Junejo told in a video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzTbHNL3N4w
Junejo said his footage from Naran was used by the government’ account in one of their YouTube videos, titled ‘Family-friendly activities in Pakistan’.
“Stealing other people’s intellectual property by calling it promotion and exposure is not new to content creators.
“My work has been stolen by news channels and Facebook pages without my permission before but I can’t keep quiet when the government starts doing it as well. Adding insult to injury, they commented that everyone should be proud that GOP is crediting them and they’re playing a part in promoting a softer image of Pakistan. This was their comment on the video that has now been taken down by YouTube,” he added.
After a brief suspension, the government’s channel was restored as it gave credit to Junejo for the video.
