Apple has had a fan-owned YouTube Channel dedicated to archiving its previous developers conferences closed down. The company used copyright claims to take down the channel, which was named “Apple WWDC Videos.”

Before its deletion, “Apple WWDC” videos contained hundreds of clips and videos related to Apple’s previous conferences. Some of the videos’ content was decades old, and featured keynotes presented by the late Steve Jobs.

Brendan Shanks, who owned the channel, took to Twitter to flag up what Apple had done. Shanks posted the words “Congratulations Apple, you took down my YouTube channel containing hundreds of…20-year old WWDC videos. Wouldn’t want anyone learning about Mac OS X, Darwin, Aqua, or WebObjects.”

While copyright claims sometimes result in the removal of a single video, it seems the sheer number filed against Shanks’ channel resulted in YouTube closing it completely. Apple also owns the rights to the footage, so there is no chance of an appeal going Shanks’ way.

Apple has not released a statement, so it isn’t immediately clear why it felt the need to target a channel containing old conference footage. The tech giant has made similar moves before, having taken down an Apple-themed web archive back in 2020.

Despite the channel’s closure, Shanks hasn’t been deterred. He claims he still has all of the footage and is in the process of moving it over to the Internet Archive — though that could take some time. The family of former Apple chief Steve Jobs also maintains an archive which contains clips of the entrepreneur speaking, selected emails, and other records of Jobs’ time at Apple.

Source: Brendan Shanks