Joel Osteen’s Church REPORTED Our Channel!

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to Fight For Truth, the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter.

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In today's video, we're going to be talking about what Joel Osteen's church just tried to do to this channel.

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Recently, we created a video responding once again to the unbiblical claims made by Joel in a recent sermon of his.

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That video has not been published yet, but it will be, hopefully, in the near future. When the video originally loaded, we received an automatic copyright notification through YouTube known as a

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Content ID Claim. This kind of claim happens automatically, again, through YouTube's system, and seeing that many videos on this channel are reaction videos, we've gotten quite a few of these things.

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And that's nothing to worry about usually, because Content ID Claims are easy to dispute, and most go away quickly.

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And knowing this, we decided to dispute the claim, thinking that our video would be monetized and given the ability to be on YouTube without any negative ramifications.

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I know that Joel Osteen's church has had run -ins with other content creators on this platform, but we thought our channel would not be affected because of the shorter form of our content.

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At least, again, that's what we thought. Shockingly, this morning, I received a message from YouTube informing me that my dispute had been formally rejected by the copyright owner,

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Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church. This is wrong for several reasons. First, let's establish that Lakewood Church have made a definitive claim against our channel here.

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They claim that we have used their copyright material in a way that violates either YouTube's policy or the copyright laws of the

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United States of America. So let's review those policies, shall we? A copyright infringement involves a situation wherein one creator uses another creator's content in a way that is not valid and or legal.

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Usually, this simply means that you played a portion of another person's video without their permission.

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Well, to be honest, we did not receive permission from Lakewood Church when I reacted to their video.

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So I guess that means our channel is in the wrong, right? No, not so fast. There are certain nuances and exceptions to copyright standards, one of which is called fair use.

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And essentially, fair use is, quote, under certain circumstances, without getting permission from the copyright owner, end quote.

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So according to YouTube, we don't need permission from Lakewood Church if we do this in a specific way.

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And what way is that? Well, again, according to YouTube, quote, courts typically focus on whether the use of copyright -protected material is transformative.

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This means whether the use adds new expression or meaning to the original material, or whether it merely copies from the original.

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Another major factor in fair use is the length of the clip you use. The smaller the clip, the better the chance you're within the bounds of fair use.

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Okay, good. So let's review here and then ask some questions. Was the video we made covered by fair use?

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Well, for one, the video is completely transformative in nature, which is the biggest factor.

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After all, we didn't just post his entire sermon, we reacted to segments of the sermon. More than this, we actively critiqued and refuted the sermon, which constitutes the bulk of our entire video.

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Additionally, the clips we used were for the most part under 30 seconds long, which is very short compared to others on YouTube.

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And by the way, it's worth noting that this channel, Fight for Truth, has made tons and tons of videos in this format, and we have never once been disciplined by YouTube after the appeal process was over.

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So where do we go from here then? Well, Lakewood Church has seven days to make a further appeal about our channel, or our video will be reinstated.

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That's how things stand currently, and we'll let you know how it goes. But the inconvenient fact, the one we're talking about today, still remains.

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Joel Osteen's church is lying about our channel to YouTube. They said that we used their material in a way that was not covered by fair use and violated policy.

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We have proven in this video that that claim is completely and totally false. It's a lie. Joel Osteen preaches from the

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Bible every week, right? Although we use the term preaching here loosely. But each week, before Joel preaches, he tells the crowd to repeat after him, and they say this, quote,

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Today I will be taught the Word of God. Fair enough. Well, let's see what the Word of God says about this situation.

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Exodus 20, verse 16 says, quote, You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

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So long story short, when you say that someone is committing a violation of your copyright, and you know that's not true, what you're doing is bearing false witness.

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It's curious, then, that after all the talk Joel Osteen gives week after week about getting

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God's favor and God's blessing and mega -success, his church has still chosen to take action against my channel based on a totally false accusation.

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Why is that? If Joel is under such extreme blessing from the Lord, why does his church have to make up accusations about virtually everyone on YouTube who disagrees with them?

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That's a good question. Here's the point, ladies and gentlemen. This channel has now been directly impeded by staff from Elevation Church and now

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Lakewood Church. These churches are spreading dangerous and often false teaching to loads of people.

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They have millions and millions of dollars coming in every year. The fact that they are manually flagging our channel for copyright should tell you something.

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Something good. By the grace of God, we are having an effect. We are making a dent. People are waking up and leaving these churches.

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Progress is being made here, folks. And that's why, instead of actually trying to refute our arguments,

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Lakewood Church has to result to basically being the bully on the playground. They can't win the game, and they know it.

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So they cheat. It seems that they can't deal with our critiques honestly, so their only alternative is to flag them for copyright and hope you don't see the video.

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In other words, we're moving forward in this fight for truth. So now's not the time to stop. It's time to double down.

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So please, if you haven't yet, consider donating to this channel so that we can continue helping people out of these false movements.

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The link to donate is in the description. With your support, we can continue to fight against the false teaching of people like Joel Osteen.

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The more support we get from our viewers, the less our channel will be affected by false copyright strikes like this one.

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And by God's grace, we'll make every attempt to do this with Biblical truth and love at the forefront of our efforts.

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So let's say along with the psalmist, The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

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And by the way, be ready for our video about Joel Osteen's sermon, Lord Willing, to drop soon.

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If we get this situation resolved, we hope you enjoy it. I pray that this has been a blessing to you, and please know that this video isn't meant as a sinful attack, but rather as a

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Biblical critique. And let's pray for Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church, that they would stop this false teaching by God's grace and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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Thank you so much for watching that video. Please give us a like and subscribe so that you don't miss any content.

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Also, don't forget to subscribe to our Rumble channel as well, just in case YouTube ever takes us down.

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The link is in the description. And before you go, take a look at this list here. These are the people who make all of the free content you see on this channel possible with their monthly support.

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Today's highlighted channel supporter is Michael W. If you also want to help and become part of the solution today, hit the link in the description.

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Your support keeps us independent and helps us immensely here on the channel. So I hope you'll consider joining the

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Truth Army today. And until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open.