YouTube Copyright notice

[BoojiBoy]

I have received a threatening copyright notice from YouTube about one of my videos (Muse "Hate This and I'll Love You"). So in order to protect myself, I have removed all Rocksmith videos. I still enjoy playing the custom tracks and appreciate this site.

 

Thanks for your views.

[Gryphonboy]

Usually there is an option to 'Acknowledge 3rd Party content" in your video manager. This diverts any revenue from your video ads to the acknowledged content owner. I've done this on all my videos and never had a problem.

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/Fading1/videos

[firekorn]

Or simply don't use monetization when you're using third party content especially in the case of custom. It's not legal to make money out of this educational content. Youtube can't control everything but they are especially going over monetized video since making money can become a big deal.

 

I've seen many video using monetization like it's not a big deal but you really shouldn't monetize rocksmith video customs or not if you want it to be legal.

[Gryphonboy]

YouTube displays ads over your content, whether you monetize it or not. You should always acknowledge content you do not own anyway, it's copyright infringement either way.

[firekorn]

My bad, I've just misunderstand how youtube handle ads over video... anyway youtube handle poorly copyright infringement and the option during video upload are not clear about the different way you can acknowledge the fact that you don't own anything and just place yourself under Fair Use.

[Gryphonboy]

True dat!In fairness to them it has been getting much better. It used to be much harder to upload custom rocksmith tracks because the content would often be blocked by the rights holder. Recently a few of my videos that were blocked have been released. So it's slowly going the right way. :-)

[Xstatic]

I have quite a variety of bands on my rocksmith customs and all I have ever got was the notice that some other company claims it and I just acknowledge it and it goes on like nothing ever happened.  It has said quite a few times that germany blocks my videos.  But nothing bad has ever happend except those companies make money from my videos.  There has been a few times where I'm almost certain the company claiming it was not the real company that should be able to claim but oh well I would rather not argue something that doesnt really affect me anyway.

[raynebc]

You can just re-record the video with the song audio muted and your guitar audio up. It won't be anywhere close enough to infringement for Youtube to take it down, at best it is just a guitar cover with no backing track.

[BoojiBoy]

Thanks for the info guys, I already got one copyright strike against me for that. I would always dispute the claim "Fair Use", and all that bullcrap. I guess I should have just acknowledged 3rd party content.

[Wepeel]

These customs don't fall under Fair Use once the audio track is added.  At that moment, it's copyright infringement.   Guitar tabs are fine under fair use because you can't copyright musical notation but once the song is added you're sharing somebody else's work.

 

I know a lot of you will argue, but ask a lawyer and you'll find out the truth.

 

Or, you could just look up Fair Use Copyright Law.  The common excuse here is "for educational purposes", but that only works when used in a classroom setting, which this site is not.  It's not a "distance learning centre either", since there is no educational structure here.  The fact that the entire song is used in the custom instead of just a portion also voids Fair Use.

 

And the fact that a user here who's posted videos on YouTube hasn't had a problem yet only means that either you're just small potatoes and it's not worth the effort, or they haven't found you yet.

 

But either way, it's only copyright infringement if the original author claims it.... until then, it's all good.

 

http://longzijun.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/music-public-domain-and-copyright/#fair-use

[Altamont-613]

 I've received over a dozen copyright removal notices and have always replied:

 

"for educational purposes only, original performance protected under fair use." 

 

 I have not lost a dispute or not had a video reinstated yet. My videos are not monetized.

 

I think putting footage of yourself playing via webcam helps your case as it does then qualify as your own performance, just a noteway with the mp3 would definitely be a grey area as far as infringement I would think.

 

Just a sidenote:

 

the whole infringement/copyright strike thing is ridiculous, you can find ripped MP3 audio tracks with millions of hits all over Youtube that don't get touched... yet Rocksmith educational videos that have hits in the hundreds seem to get targeted.

[firekorn]

@@Wepeel : to quote your own link

 

These four points mean that fair use is something of a gamble; you can really only prove it in court.

So did you go in court to verify that it's not really fair use?

 

I don't want to be rude here, but claiming that this is not fair use and linking to a blog that say that fair use i not really define clearly so that unless you actually go in front of a court, you won't be able to say that something is fair use or not is bold.

 

Rocksmith video can be view as a cover of a song so having the song on background is not a big problem but unless you go in front of a court you won't be able to say that it is or not legal...

 

So youtube will be default take the side of the author but you have some possibilities to actually acknowledge the use of third party content and give them almost the full right over your video, from there you can't really go against the author will.

[BoojiBoy]

And the fact that a user here who's posted videos on YouTube hasn't had a problem yet only means that either you're just small potatoes and it's not worth the effort, or they haven't found you yet.

 

 

 PewDiePie even has a Rocksmith playthrough of a Muse song (with the music)... not many YouTubers bigger than him

[Wepeel]

You all seem to be confusing YouTube's personal policy concerning Fair Use for uploading videos with Fair Use Copyright Law.  They are two very different things.

 

Customs posted here are not videos.  And they are not a person sitting in front of a camera teaching somebody how to play a song.  The customs contain the actual song inside the file, which once shared, violates copyright law. Even if you legally purchased the audio track contained in the custom, you do not legally have the right to share it.

 

And no, the customs cannot be considered a cover.  You did not re-record the song with you playing and singing.

 

We can argue back and forth all day on this, but in the end, copyright law is pretty clear.  Sharing copyrighted material that you do not own is illegal.

[Teinashu]

Actually, since you are playing the song in the video. It's a cover...

[BeZi]

Or simply don't use monetization when you're using third party content especially in the case of custom. It's not legal to make money out of this educational content. Youtube can't control everything but they are especially going over monetized video since making money can become a big deal.

 

I've seen many video using monetization like it's not a big deal but you really shouldn't monetize rocksmith video customs or not if you want it to be legal.

Ofc except CDLC of your own song... ;)

 

Then? I dunno - I think that it depends from Rocksmiths licence...

[Attitude]

I wish I could access the video manager stuff from my phone,, but I am sure there was the educational exception thing available to be selected. I also include educational purposes in the description somewhere. Mine have been up since RS1 and I even have an RS2014 Metallica custom play through up and no issues yet.

[Xstatic]

I hope I wasnt the one being called small potatoes I got 24 subscribers im pretty sure im on my way to the big leagues!

[MilkmanDan]

I have quite a few playthrough videos posted.  I don't monetize, but I block ads in all of my personal browsing so I have never seen if YT adds in ad content to my videos anyway -- if they do I have never seen it.

 

I think that pretty much every single one of my videos has recognized the content and asked me to acknowledge.  I always do so.  Occasionally, it will tell me that the video is blocked in some country.  Maybe 10-15% are blocked in Germany.  Then 1 in 20-25 or so is blocked *everywhere*, at which point I just delete it.

 

 

The one experience that I found quite annoying was when I uploaded a (bass) playthrough of Canon Rock by JerryC.

 

My opinion is that Canon Rock is a cover / interpretation / arrangement for guitar / derivative work of Canon in D by Pachelbel.  That original work is now public domain.  I suppose that a performance of a public domain work can still be copyrighted; New York Philharmonic Orchestra or whoever might copyright a recording where they perform the piece.  But, if anyone was going to make that claim for the song that the custom was based on, it should be JerryC, who both A) arranged the song for guitar AND B) performed his own arrangement, recorded that, and submitted it to video sharing sites (I think it was out there before YouTube even existed).

 

Instead, I got the standard "your content is owned by" notice, but it said that the owner was something like "FunTwo music".  I disagree with that -- FunTwo simply performed another cover of the arrangement by JerryC of the song by Pachelbel...  And the background music in the custom I was performing was JerryC's performance NOT FunTwo's.  That's like claiming that Korn should own the rights to my performance of Pink Floyd's original "Another Brick in the Wall", just because Korn also covered the song.

 

So, I decided that for once I actually wanted to dispute the copyright claim.  I clicked on that button, and YouTube presented me with a list of possible justifications for disputing the claim ... none of which actually covered the reality of the situation.  One option was making the claim on the basis of calling it fair use; which is close to what I wanted but not exactly right.  I ended up just giving up and "acknowledging" the (in my opinion) FALSE ownership claim, but I was rather annoyed about it.  Really needed to be an option in there for "I dispute that the copyright claim is invalid because it is issued by an entity that doesn't actually have anything to do with the content I included."

[BoojiBoy]

So, if I do decide to re-up my videos. Should I put a disclaimer that I do not own content.. blah blah? Some times I get notices that a third party owns content "but it's still available on YouTube". I guess I'll just delete the ones that get blocked everywhere.

[Rockinbiscuit]

Fourth, there is no way to apply for anything like a ‘fair use license’ before using a copyrighted work. Such a thing does not exist. Of course, you can still ask for permission to use a work, but there is no formal mechanism for applying for fair use exemptions or permissions.

 

The above quote from that link is a very good point, even if we wanted to get permission, there are no means to do so for the average joe like ourselves.

 

The same would be applied to soundcloud uploads that contain the original etc....

 

Besides, most of us that would put something like this would come under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 which covers:

Criticism

Comment

News

Reporting

TeachingScholarship

and Research.

 

As long as the source is mentioned (artist, name of produced works, publisher etc....) and it is not for profit, then I see no problem as we are simply using it to learn then uploading it to soundcloud/youtube etc.... for comment and criticism on youtube, forums and such.

 

tris

[BoojiBoy]

well, I started putting all my videos back up. I'm acknowledging 3rd party content and they are still available, so I guess that's a good sign.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/DishpanHands

 

thanks

[MilkmanDan]

I think that if you go through the video manager and acknowledge all the 3rd party content notices, you'll be fine.

 

Sometimes a particular band/label tells YouTube to block their content everywhere.  When I run into one of those, I just delete that video.  The only other option is to remove the audio entirely, which makes the video pretty much pointless.

 

However, as long as you go through the process of acknowledging the content and then checking to see if that content gets blocked anywhere, I don't think you will get any strikes against your YouTube account for uploading copyrighted material.  You make good playthrough videos, I know people enjoy them and can use them to help learn/practice a song even if they don't have Rocksmith or are away from their computer/console.  So I say keep up the good work and just follow YouTube's content acknowledging system, and it works out for everybody.

 

It is a shame when a label/band gets strict about blocking their content worldwide, but those cases are pretty few and far between in my experience so far.