In case you missed it, YouTuber ZONEofTECH uploaded a video titled “Apple COPYRIGHT STRIKED my Channel!” Long story short, Apple took down a video of his that was from four years ago titled “HOW TO: install OS X Yosemite BETA / Developer preview without breaking your mac” So, he made a video, teaching people how to install macOS beta software before there was a public beta program available, so effectively, he was helping people learn how to install the software without a proper developer license.

ZONEofTECH's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F-aeoJho5A

A company that represented Apple issued a copyright claim on Apple’s behalf, sighting copyright infringement. Because of this, the video was instantly taken down from YouTube and a strike was issued against the ZoneofTech channel, which immediately has effects on his channel that limit what he’s able to do on YouTube - and if you get three strikes, your channel gets terminated. So yeah, strikes like this are very serious.

So, he made a video giving people the information needed to gain access to beta software that they weren’t licensed to have - is this against Apple Terms of Service, yeah it is. But, let’s make one thing clear, this is NOT a copyright issue. This is not copyright infringement. We can talk about ethics and ToS all day and debate whether gaining access to software like this is right or wrong - but the issue is surrounding the video itself, because it’s the video that Apple targeted, or at least, the company acting on behalf of Apple.

This is Apple, or the company working for Apple, being upset about the spread of this information and then taking action and masking it under the claim of “copyright infringement”. The act itself, is wrong - according to Apple’s ToS and in no way should be supported by Apple. And the people that take the advice of videos like this are assuming the full responsibility of their own actions and should also be denied support from Apple if they’ve installed unlicensed software. But again, this is a terms of service issue, that Apple is making into a copyright issue and no part of this whole situation could possibly be accepted as a copyright issue.

The definition of “copyright” is: the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same.

This ZoneofTech guy did not start distributing a version of MacOS called the “ZoneofTech MacoS clone 9000” THAT, THAT would be copyright infringement. No one is publishing a fork of Apple’s software here and claiming it as their own, he’s not even distributing it... For example, there’s a difference between if I watch the movie at my friends house, and outright making another copy of the Blu-Ray without paying for it. One of those things is illegal, you see? Or, as a great member of our community put it “That’d be like lock manufacturers taking down videos of youtubers who teach lock picking” Like I said, the act, itself might be wrong and he made a video spreading information that the average person has no business acting upon. But the spreading of information is not copyright infringement. Apple, you don’t get to pick and choose what copyright infringement is. If THIS is copyright infringement, you better take down any video that talks about jailbreaking, or hackintoshes, or better yet, you sure as gotta take down any video that shows the inside of an iPhone or MacBook to the people that don’t have a license to be opening them up. If you’re gonna do it, go all the way. Don’t have one of your balls in, and one of your balls out.

If showing something like this was against YouTube’s ToS and YouTube issued a takedown on such video, fair game. But YouTube didn’t do this - Apple did and claimed it was an issue of copyright.

It’s wrong. It’s against Apple’s TOS and rightfully so and Apple should never ever support support anything like this. But… sorry timmy, you can’t play god with Copyright law. You can’t make up the rules just because someone did something that made you feel icky.

So, if you somehow haven’t figured it out yet, let me help. If you think it's okay for Apple (or a company representing Apple) to issue a copyright takedown, over what's actually a terms of service issue - you're a crazy person.