YouTube and copyright

Wow!  I received that message once before, but it was for a photo slide show I made with a pro recording of other music (off of a store bought CD) in the background.  They did put the video through, but there was some kind of additional message about them having to place advertisements on my video.  Maybe links to amazon to purchase the music or something of the sort.  Apparently you are either THAT GOOD that you sound just like the Bee Gee's or YouTube is trying to find another way to make some money.  It's sad.  From my research, artists are allowed to cover songs completely legally.  The only time it becomes an issue is if you are covering a song and getting paid for it (ie: selling your cover via download or cd)... THEN you should have a contract with the publishers and be paying them pennies for each recording you sell.  I don't think that YouTube has the legal right to step in here personally.  You're not selling music on their site, and even if you were... how do they know if you have a private contract with the publishers or not?

Keep us updated Roger, because I won't bother uploading anything else to YouTube, including originals, if they are going to make covers a pain in the tushy.  Good Luck!

When we post cover songs, we always emphasize the word "cover" in the title.
Credit where credit's due. Never had a problem.
toots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoZ52e0zCrs I found these and theres a lot more

I don't know how many of ya'll have seen the video's of Fretkillr on YouTube but his account is now suspended. Russell provided a link to his covers amd the guy is more than GOOD. It seems as though anything and everything is now under a microscope and everyone is trying to cover their hind end so they won't get sued.

Nela

Ok, I did a little research on this guys!  Apparently Warner Chappell, a major record label, has been fighting with YouTube for a while.  Pretty much, if THEY find it then they are going to tell YouTube to take it down.  Fact of the matter is, while YOU are not making a red cent off of your cover, the record company feels that YouTube IS and therefore YouTube needs to pay them royalties.  Since YouTube isn't interested in doing that, they are simply taking covers down... deleting accounts... etc..

An Excerpt from the Wiki on Warner Music Group regarding YouTube:
"WMG was the first major media company to form a strategic relationship with YouTube, effectively embracing a business model around user-generated content. The arrangement with YouTube required that royalties be paid based on the number of views that videos featuring music from WMG artists received. However in December 2008, negotiations between the two companies broke down, and as a result, clips on YouTube featuring WMG music recordings have had their audio removed or blocked completely and replaced with a message indicating copyright infringement."

Soooo pretty much that means people doing covers too.  Warner is going nutty trying to make sure they get their fair share of the pie.  I suppose in a way I can't blame them... the fact that they made the deal with YouTube and then it all went south gives them the right to consider it "copyright infringement" and shut things down.  Will YouTube go to battle in court over this?  Why would they?  They don't really care about you or I, they just want to keep their money too!  I suppose you could put a disclaimer about "fair use" and for "educational purposes only" in your description... but I doubt that will change anything once Warner Music Group finds your video.  MAYBE you could get away with it if you were doing a tutorial on HOW to play the song and not JUST playing it.  This STINKS!

I don't know what this means as far as "where" you can put your covers online "legally" now.  I imagine even sites like soundclick will eventually have problems with covers as well.  And how long do you think it will take until the other major labels follow suit?  It seems that in order to legally play any cover you need to have a manager... even if you're not making any money off it.  Unless, I suppose you decided to pay for a website that you made and feature your covers on that said website and have absolutely ZERO advertising on that website so that there was NO possibility of ever making a dime to help pay for that website (and then there are no royalties to give the labels).  UGH!  Stinky stinky stink!

Wow, record companies really are acting like scumbags lately.

Dm