The end of VideoNeat and TROM Series youtube channel
Last night I finished rendering the next TROM Series episode, 1h 16min long episode. Today I wanted to upload it to our TROM Series Youtube channel and surprise: I wasn’t logged in and my password was invalid. I was also unable to recover it. Nothing to say that my entire google account for TROM series (gmail: tromsite@gmail.com and everything associated with it) was shut down overnight. I had to ‘google it’ (the irony) and after reading a bunch of forums I realized that’s the case. I submitted a request for more info to a google page for disabled accounts and I’ve got an email (to my personal address) that indeed it was disabled.
Ok. So now I am not sure what lead to this, and this is the frustrating and scary part. Indeed on that account, there were several documentaries posted on google drive, and we had tons of copyright strikes on our youtube channel, some of whom we disputed. But to close all my account: gmail, picasa photos, youtube, google drive (for which I paid each month), and all google services like access to API’s…that’s a hard hit that will for sure force me to move away from google, at least not rely on it for anything because this can also happen to my personal account any time without warning.
Since documentaries from VideoNeat were connected (I think) to tromsite@gmail.com google drive then those are dead now. That’s almost half (if not more) of VideoNeat (plus images like posters and thumbnails). Google Drive, like all hosting entities out there for sure says “If you do not own a material do not upload here.” but how can you know if you are allowed to upload a documentary or a photo or stuff like that…As I knew all the documentaries I uploaded there were free for educational purposes, for which they were used. More than that what you might have seen on VideoNeat was a youtube-kind-of-version of those files, converted and streamed by google (not by me), not what I uploaded to their drive. More so, google removed a few such files (because weirdly it has bots scanning for copyrighted materials on your ‘personal’ drive that you bought) and deleted a handful of them and I was like “Oh, ok, didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to upload those, but good to know google automated system can detect and fix that like they do on youtube.”. So they had the power to delete any file that was ‘infringing’ their terms and services, and I was “Ok, whatever.” So why, if that was the reason to end all my account, didn’t they just delete all files that were “filthy” (copyright-wise)? Or at least send me an email “Tio, bro, be careful because we detected lots of copyrighted stuff on your drive.”. So I suspect that wasn’t teh reason at all.
Maybe it was the youtube channel where we uploaded stuff that had ‘copyrighted’ materials in them. TROM Series could not avoid getting away from that since we used fragments from documentaries in our videos, that were (again), for educational purposes and we successfully disputed these claims for our TROM Series and we won, at least that’s what I thought because youtube is like “You really want to dispute this? Becuase if you lose we will shut down all your account!”. And I disputed several such claims, never heard back from google, so maybe they decided later on that “Yeah, he didn’t win the dispute, so let’s remove his channel.”. TROM Series was also the channel where TROM Documentary was first uploaded and then butchered by copyright strikes. So maybe it was a really filthy channel….
Therefore, was it my gdrive and my collection of documentaries? Or my youtube channel where we posted original content? I will never know since that’s in google’s policy: they do not disclose the reason more than the email you saw above for which I had to do a request to get it. Basically google can shut down your account and give you no warning. That’s so Hitler-like that is hard to believe, but it is true.
What now?
First, acceptance. There is nothing I can do. To submit counter-notifications is synonymous to perhaps going to court for this or hire a lawyer. Not going there.
Second is to transform VideoNeat into something else where you can’t watch documentaries but you can only read about them. It sucks, but soon all videos will be gone. I will make a beautiful website where I recommend documentaries and I’ll provide the best sources of where you can watch them.
Third, reopening a TROM Series Youtube channel and NOT dispute any claim. If we have a video that might get us in troubles we will post a short video announcement about that and let people know where to watch it (on tromsite.com for sure). We have no choice.
Fourth, speaking of that, I will take all the stuff I made over the years (videos, books, etc.) and save them all to an offline hard drive + upload them in several online places to not rely only on Youtube or Vimeo. Tromsite.com is still the hub where TROM stuff will always have a home and not be raped by companies. This is why it is important to have a website because Youtube or Vimeo or others can get too bossy and fuck you up and you will realize everything you did will be gone overnight. I was aware of this before this is why the TROM Documentary and TROM Series were also uploaded to Vimeo. But now I will extend that to other places. I am also concerned because TROM Series is uploaded on my personal google drive as well, for those who want to download the episodes and do voice over for them. So I’ll have to do something about that too. In brief, I will have to completely divorce from any entity on the web: google, vimeo, etc.
I hope you understand that I’ll be somewhat busy the following days with this and won’t be able to work much on TROM. I will keep you posted here.
Update 1: I see the channel is still up https://www.youtube.com/user/TROMdocumentary/videos so this is likely a gdrive issue. I can’t access the channel. So it will live like a zombie channel there forever I suppose. Trying to contact google to see if at least we can recover the youtube channel, though I doubt.
Update 2: I can’t contact google apparently. The decision is quite final. The only way for me to fight with them would be the legal way – legal and meaningless words, lots of time, perhaps money, and who knows what. No way for me to do this. So goodbye forever to the above. Also, just to mention this: I or no one else made any money from VideoNeat or TROM Series. And videoenat was mainly used as a source of information (to cite claims) for TROM ebooks – like to prove a point or to source from where I got that info. It is not my fault that this world is fucked up and I can’t even source these documentaries because they are blanketed beneath rules, money, tribes, whatever. What are you people doing these ‘educational’ things for if you lock them up and keep them for yourself? And you are doing this in a world where to copy a documentary a billion times for a billion people costs nothing. Awful species. The shame of the universe.
Update 3: I created a kind of personal Twitter, a page where I can post updates and it updates live, no need to refresh. Here it is https://www.tiotrom.com/live/ – from now on I’ll use this all the time to post updates. I will try to ignore fb, twitter, and the like (the unsocial networks) from now on. I’ll rely on my own website at the expense of losing eyeballs. At least I keep my balls :D.
Update 4: I am working on rebuilding VideoNeat. This time though it will be unbreakable. Indeed you won’t be able to watch documentaries on the website directly, but I’ll say just don’t worry about that. You’ll see. It will be mobile friendly and I will also add some awesome special stuff like George Carlin’s specials, more lectures, and other stuff. Btw please support me if you can https://www.patreon.com/tio – I am nearly broke and I have to spend money on templates and plugins for the new VideoNeat. Thanks!
Update 5: VideoNeat is back! :).
18 Replies to “The end of VideoNeat and TROM Series youtube channel”
Ugh! This is terrible news… I’m so sorry to read this. I noticed something was wrong with videoneat about two or three days ago, but I thought it was because I watch this stuff from my phone and not a computer(I don’t own one). Damnit! I loved that site
The nerve of Google aka the Thought Police, to shut you down for copyright issues, especially since you’re not profiting off of this. Companies like this steal our personal info, sell it, influence search engines and do it all for profit, then turn around and shut you down. So frustrating!
I, and many others like me, appreciate all of your hard work and continued efforts.
Yeah I loved VN a lot and I put so much effort into it. You can’t find such materials anywhere on the internet and in a way that is free, simple, no ads, and curated. I made no money out of it nor did I ever wanted to do this – it was strictly for “education”, to create a tool for people to know about themselves and the world. To be a thief in this world it means to be the wrong person stealing the wrong stuff. Google, Fb, and all companies steal (as you said) a ton more but they are the right people stealing the right stuff.
I would appriciate just a website with the same well structured information available, not necessarily the videos embedded though that has been a really big bonus for VideoNeat. I love your work and this has been a really good place to find good documentaries, and please don’t let this setback kill your spirit. There are a great deal of like-minded people around the world. Maybe a spinoff idea or the use of community would serve your cause better?
I would hesitate to generalize all of humanity based on a few pompous overlords that has a solid position in this capitalistic game. I get that you are mad, my ego would be as well if I put all my time and dedication into such a big thing and they killed off my accounts, however, now might be the right time for some reflection and looking into yourself for answers instead of staying mad at them, which serves no real purpose other than hurting yourself. I wish you the best and hope that you move on quickly and resume your good work with TROM as well. I think a lot of people will appriciate it.
Thank you for your message. I am not at all mad at anyone. I’ve seen people assuming this quite a lot when I make such articles. I understand so well why this happens and I expected for this to happen with VideoNeat a long time ago, but didn’t expect for google to shut down all of my google services. Nevertheless, I will rebuild VideoNeat very soon but I don’t think I can provide the video files for any documentary.
Actually such events are fuelling my desire to make TROM better and more well known.
Agreed! We recognize the importance and quality of your plans to transform VideoNeat. Personally, it has helped me on shifting my values; replacing empty-ended fantasies or series never-ending with streams relating to the whole-human-experience. Quite shocking to see the site down (Will be downloading your downloadable content and wait for your video torrents)… We see you keeping it up! As for your plans, I leave you this:
“Just look at the wars. If we can do this much damage, we could do so much good.”
“If you can bestow me such pain, imagine what pleasures you can cause me.”
I will for sure do something interesting out of VideoNeat. Can’t let the project die for good 😉
Tio, wow, that is such utter bullshit that they shut down all of your services. I would there be a petition about this, to demand that they reinstate your services. These fucks have been making money off of us using their social media platforms and products for awhile now. They’ve collecting information on us. Hell after I leave this page, I am certain, I’m gonna get some ad that is somehow that is somehow related to it. How dare they pull this BS Big Brother, maneuver.
“Not at all mad at anyone…” EXCEPT Google, I would say, if I were you. Anyway, if anyone decides to make a petition about this please let me know.
Unfortunately, a petition won’t solve anything against google. They are too big and powerful. Actually if I make too much noise they could easily find ways to sue me or something along those lines. But don’t worry I am working on releasing the new VideoNeat – this month or sure I will release it. And it will be way more powerful in terms of someone being able to shut it down. You’ll see 😉 – I post updates here all the time -> https://www.tiotrom.com/live/
Sound point. Yes they are too big, i suppose. Still so irritating. I am not presently able to donate, but as i mentioned in email to you am beginning to share with others and will continue to share qt as far and widely as i can. Thx again, so much for all you’ve done and are doing.
Thank you so much! No worries about the donation, spreading the word is equally important.
Hi. I’m one of your patrons and I’m quite surprised and quite sorry for what happened to Videoneat. I loved it because it was a compilation of educational movies and documentaries. For instance, I loved “October Sky”, or “Something the Lord Made” as movies, or “Countdown to Life” or “Absoloute Zero (BBC): The Race for Absolute Zero & The Conquest of Cold”. More specifically, I’m not surprised that it was closed, by on how it was closed. The least they could have done is sending you a message specifying what videos to retire and giving you a couple of days. It is peaty that google is not made to share its algorithm, since other searchers like duckduckgo are not as good.
By the way, this same law has been applied to anime pages, which is quite frustrating because you really cannot buy them anywhere, especially when they are older than 5 years. But, yeah, I guess that when applied to documentary is even worse.
Also, these laws are applied to scientific journal, which is the most frustrating of all, because a bunch of thieves directly profit from our work (I’m starting a PhD in September). In addition, whenever I want to consult an original source, it makes it quite difficult, and it usually is research paid with public money!
Indeed, there is a very serious problem in Europe (and in the world) with creative licences and patents, and it is so sad that most people do not see how reducing them could improve their lives. I do not understand that a license of a book last more than 10 years (indeed, it does more than 70 years after the writers death, so someone is parasitizing what Asimov did) or nationalizing in the case of medical patents, like the case of the Sovaldi, which was a research made with public money that was afterwards bought by a big company (https://lacienciaysusdemonios.com/2015/01/13/el-caso-del-medicamento-sovaldi-contra-la-hepatitis-c-como-ejemplo-de-la-ruinosa-privatizacion-de-la-investigacion-biomedica/ ).
Anyway, good luck with your new page and I’m eager to see the new Videoneat when it is ready. I hope that at least I will continue to watch the documentaries, even if it in other web pages. Thank you very much for your work.
Yes indeed the world is messed up and even scientific research is behind paywalls…
And last night I worked on VN a bit and already rebuilt it in a new way. I will make it bulletproof and even through you won’t be able to watch documentaries on VN directly I can assure you it ill be a breeze to watch and download them. Stay tuned!
First of all u are one of a kind for making all this came true and be sure that u have made our days/nights really enjoyable, so thank u!
Second i will like to donate (as others will like too) so u can keep your balls and eyeballs too!
🙂
Thank you so much! I rarely think about this part “u have made our days/nights really enjoyable” but it is true many have spent lots of hours on VN enjoying the content. That’s something that I didn’t quite think a lot about. My pleasure! 🙂 and be sure that I’ll do something about VN so that you can spend a lot of more nights/days watching quality content.
🙂 to donate you can go here https://www.tiotrom.com/support-me/ – it is true I need a hell lot more donations since I am working alone and this and TROM Project take all my time – it is my full time job and I get very little money to survive. I also have to buy stuff for remaking VN so for sure any donation is hugely important. Thank you!
We’re with you Tio. I’m not going to pretend to know how you feel but I know how I feel. I talk to people all the time about Tromsite, The Venus Project, The Zeitgeist Movement, Videoneat, the documentaries, the debates, dialogues, discussions & controversies, trying, in vein it seems most days, to bring awareness or at least get people to start thinking & talking; & with the loss of yet another great source of information & inspiration I feel like curling up in a ball & just dying. But I’m old enough & know myself well enough now to know that it’s just a passing feeling, that things will get better & that people like you are invaluable as great sources of inspiration & hope. The fact that you’re still trudging forward through all of this muck & have a plan to recover is more than just inspiring, it’s rallying. There does exist a community of support & we’ve found each other here. I have to keep talking about this to people, I can’t not, it’s too important. Keep going Tio, we’re trudging with you. We have to.
Kurt don’t worry I am working to bring back VN 😉 – I understand how you feel. I’ve been bumping my head into morons and moronic situations all my life, but my desire to tell the world what are the problems we face and what are the solutions to fix those is too huge for me to stop. Do the same.When I hear from people like you trying to spread the word it is a reminder that although I may not hear about these people, they do exist. Thank you my friend! And keep on spreading the word. Soon VN will come back – it will be different, but still a very useful tool. You’ll see.
I am so sorry. I am actually almost speechless. So much for being told to use “Google!”. I will slowly be moving my work away from Google on the basis of your story. Best of luck, but perhaps things you wanted better will happen as you transition.
VN will be back very soon 😉 – indeed this was a wake-up call for me to not rely on any company with the stuff I make. The new VN will try to solve this issue, you’ll see. Thank you for your comment!