So about 2 weeks ago I posted yet another YouTube video that appropriated one of my diagrams without attribution. I sent the video maker emails asking about it, but received no response. Now, I have *no* problem with people using my diagrams to illustrate articles, books, videos, etc. about those subjects; all I ask is attribution. Hell, I don’t even demand *money*, just… let readers & viewers know where ya got it… and asking in advance is just common courtesy.

These diagrams are copyrighted; they are a sizable fraction of my income. It was pointed out to me that if you don’t make an effort to protect your copyright, you can *lose* that copyright. So, I took the one option that was available to me: I filed a copyright complaint with YouTube. I didn’t expect much to come of it, but, lo and behold, this is what you get if you spool up the video today:

The copyright strike takedown system gave the video maker a full week to fix the issue. A fix that could have been made by simply adding a note in the description of the video. But… no such effort was made. I never heard a thing from the maker. So a video with a few hundred thousand views went *poof.* This baffles me: surely YouTube must have in some way informed the video maker about the complaint in progress, the looming takedown? If so and the creators blew it off… well, that’s on them. But if YouTube didn’t inform them, that would seem to be on YouTube. I’ve heard a lot of complaints from video creators about the copyright strike system, so maybe that’s it.

For future reference: if you want to use one of my diagrams in one of your products, do two things:

1: Ask in advance… I’ll almost certainly say “yes.”

2: Say where the diagram came from… “Scott Lowther” or “US Bomber Projects” or “aerospaceprojectsreview.com.” It’s not that hard.

If you take one of my diagrams and incorporate it in a way that makes it come off as *your* work, though, I will take offense.