(empo-utoobd) YouTube customer service has evolved...slightly...since my account was permanently disabled in 2009

For those of you who missed the original story, a quick recap. Back in 2009, I logged into my Empoprises YouTube account one day and found that it had been "permanently disabled." When I sought more information from Google, I received a canned message with the following information:

We are unable to provide specific detail regarding your account suspension or your video's removal. For more information on our what we consider inappropriate content or conduct while using YouTube, please visit our Community Guidelines and Tips at http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines and our Help Center article at http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=92486.


In other words, your account has been suspended, and we can't tell you why. I awarded a "Customer Service Darwin Award" to Google for that one.

That was several years ago, and the permanent disabling of my YouTube account continues to this day - something that I've discussed in the empo-utoobd post series.

However, a few days ago, I tried my usual couple of times a year login to YouTube - something that was again denied - and noticed a new button that allowed you to appeal your suspension. I clicked it, and a day ago I actually received a response, and finally learned why my YouTube account had been suspended all those years ago.

Hi there,

This account was found in Violation of TOU #4 Section H:
http://www.youtube.com/t/terms

"You agree not to use or launch any automated system, including without limitation, "robots," "spiders," or "offline readers," that accesses the Service in a manner that sends more request messages to the YouTube servers in a given period of time than a human can reasonably produce in the same period by using a conventional on-line web browser. Notwithstanding the foregoing, YouTube grants the operators of public search engines permission to use spiders to copy materials from the site for the sole purpose of and solely to the extent necessary for creating publicly available searchable indices of the materials, but not caches or archives of such materials. YouTube reserves the right to revoke these exceptions either generally or in specific cases. You agree not to collect or harvest any personally identifiable information, including account names, from the Service, nor to use the communication systems provided by the Service (e.g., comments, email) for any commercial solicitation purposes. You agree not to solicit, for commercial purposes, any users of the Service with respect to their Content."

Sincerely,
The YouTube Team

So apparently back in 2009, I launched some sort of automated spider that retrieved tons of data from YouTube. This was news to me, as I noted in my reply to Google:

Well, now it's good to know after all these years why my YouTube account was shut down. When I first inquired about this, I simply received an automated message to read the Terms of Service.

Unfortunately, there's only one teeny tiny issue - I've never used any automated system to access YouTube. And no, I'm not saying this in a Ryan Braun way - I really haven't.

Is there any recourse to get my YouTube account reinstated, or am I presumed guilty of something that I didn't do?

Looking forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
John Bredehoft

If you see this post years after I wrote it, or if you're not a sports enthusiast, I should explain that Ryan Braun is a baseball player who vehemently denied for 18+ months that he violated baseball's drug policy - until yesterday, when he suddenly admitted that he had violated baseball's drug policy. I wanted to make the point that I'm not going to subsequently admit to using some type of automated spider, especially since any attempt of mine to prove that I could even launch an automated spider would be a laughable failure. No, I am not a script kiddie.

As I promised back in 2009, I'll provide any updates on my personal situation. Either this thing is getting very close to being successfully resolved, or it's not.