Jaywick activist 'loses' YouTube videos in copyright row

Music in the background of one of Danny Sloggett's videos was one of the issues raised by YouTube

A man who makes short films about one of England's most deprived neighbourhoods had his YouTube archive wiped over complaints about copyright.

Community activist Danny Sloggett, 44, highlights issues in Jaywick, Essex.

His YouTube account has been disabled over copyright issues in some videos, with Mr Sloggett unable to access any of his previous films.

Mr Sloggett said he planned to appeal to Google, which owns Youtube, in person. The company is yet to comment.

It is understood the complaints, one of which involved music playing in the background of a video, were made by Warner Bros and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Responding to YouTube, a "devastated" Mr Sloggett said he understood he had breached copyright but asked: "Is there any way I can just have my personal videos back?"

He said his mistake had cost him "his memories" as he had not backed up the videos, some of which included family members who had since died.

Mr Sloggett founded Jaywick Sands Happy Club to give the village a "youth club for adults"

YouTube runs a three-strike policy for copyright violations. The first two come with a warning and the third means an account is disabled.

In messages seen by the BBC, YouTube said one of the offending videos was a charity event for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, which had been published in 2016.

The other two videos were made at concerts at the O2 Arena.

Mr Sloggett is the founder of the Jaywick Sands Happy Club and the organiser of the annual Jaywick's Got Talent event. His most popular videos attracted more than 300,000 views each.

He said he planned to appeal to Google at their London offices on Monday.