YouTube and content creators clash over the platform’s automated copyright tool; Marketplace, November 4, 2022

Marketplace; YouTube and content creators clash over the platform’s automated copyright tool

"Every minute, people upload more than 500 hours of video to YouTube — cat videos, music videos, even videos of people recording their audio podcasts.

And some of those clips include content the people uploading them don’t own, like clips of music from popular songs.

YouTube, and its owner, Google, have an automated technology called Content ID that regularly scans for copyrighted material — including music — and flags it for copyright holders.

Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams spoke about this with Marketplace’s Peter Balonon-Rosen, who explained why the system has some musicians frustrated."

THE STAR WARS VIDEO THAT BAFFLED YOUTUBE'S COPYRIGHT COPS; Wired, August 2, 2017

Jeremy Hsu, Wired; THE STAR WARS VIDEO THAT BAFFLED YOUTUBE'S COPYRIGHT COPS

"Still, the Auralnauts say they have few options to fight what they view as unfair claims on their content. Koonce suggested possible Content ID improvements that could prevent the same false claims from being repeatedly filed against the same video by different claimants. “People need to protect their IP, but don’t give them all the power," he says.

A smarter profit-sharing system would differentiate better between, say, a video of Queen performing “Bohemian Rhapsody” or the same song playing in the background of someone's wedding video. “What is needed is a more nuanced approach to how stuff gets monetized,” says Robert Lyons, a former digital media executive who is now a visiting lecturer at Northeastern University in Boston.

In any case, Lyons suggests that the Auralnauts video has a very good chance of being protected under fair use legal doctrine—the legal concept that allows for music and video parodies, among other exceptions to copyright infringement. “I think that a mere five seconds of the title’s music in a work that clearly is transformative and [that] poses no threat to the commercial potential of the original work would have a very strong fair use defense,” Lyons says."

Vimeo to Launch Music Copyright ID System; Billboard, 5/21/14

Andrew Flanagan, Billboard; Vimeo to Launch Music Copyright ID System:

"Vimeo, the hosting site popular with video artists of all stripes and which uses the motto "upload your own work," will be implementing a system they're calling Copyright Match, intended to prevent music copyright infringement on the site.

CEO Kerry Trainor tells Billboard the system will allow the company to be "a little more controlled in terms of making sure that copyrighted material in its entirety isn't being synched to Vimeo without proper licensing."...

The new system should be less severe than the Content ID system used at Vimeo's main competitor YouTube, which often pulls videos determined to be infringing with little notification to uploaders. Copyright Match, produced in partnership with audio identification company Audible Magic, will be a tiered process...

If videos have a fair use case -- one of the most problematic areas of copyright monitoring in the high-volume digital age -- Vimeo will hear them out and reinstate the video's visibility if it meets their criteria."

Copyright laws must fit online evolution; Sydney Morning Herald, 11/11/09

Lance Kavanaugh, (senior product counsel, YouTube, is in Australia this week to discuss copyright issues), Sydney Morning Herald; Copyright laws must fit online evolution:

New business models will need new content ownership rules.

"PEOPLE around the world want to connect and interact with content online. We expect to be able to sit at our computer, or walk along with our mobile phone, and have content at our fingertips. The internet enables just that, and in doing so has shifted community expectations about access to content.

It is challenging for traditional copyright laws to adapt to the online environment, as was noted by WIPO director-general Francis Gurry in his address to the National Press Club in August.

In Mr Gurry's words: ''It is not necessarily by putting teenagers in jail that we are going to be able to deal with this extremely serious problem.''

Managing copyright online presents some of the most difficult technical and legal challenges on the internet - in part because global rights ownership and management are exceedingly complicated.

For example, music videos often have many different content owners who own different components of the video and audio. One party may own the video, another party the soundtrack and yet another the musical composition. You get the picture.

As a lawyer for YouTube, I am familiar with the challenges and excited about the potential solutions. I believe it's important that content owners, service providers and the public tackle this proactively. We see a lot of focus on combating copyright infringement. But do we see enough focus on the experimentation that is happening with new business models and the copyright tools that will make those new business models possible?"

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/biz-tech/copyright-laws-must-fit-online-evolution-20091109-i5hl.html

Google seeks to turn a profit from YouTube copyright clashes; Guardian, 11/1/09

Katie Allen, Guardian; Google seeks to turn a profit from YouTube copyright clashes:

Group is working to persuade music and video companies to cash in rather than clamp down when their content is uploaded

"Google is seeking to drag YouTube into profit by convincing music and film footage rights owners to make advertising revenue from their content rather than remove it from the video-sharing site for breach of copyright.

The company has been touting a fingerprinting system for rights holders that means YouTube can identify their material even when it has been altered and made part of user-generated content such as wedding videos or satirical clips.

First developed two years ago, the ContentID system is attracting record labels, TV producers and sports rights owners keen to make more money from the web. Google's computers compare all the material uploaded to YouTube – around 20 hours every minute – against "ID files" from a 100,000-hour library of reference material from the rights holders. The system creates reports of what is viewed where and how often.

Rights holders then have the choice to either block their content or make money from it. That means putting advertising alongside the video and sharing the revenues with YouTube, which takes a small cut. They can also make money by linking to sites selling DVDs, downloads and CDs of the original content.

Google declines to give a number but says the majority of rights holders choose to monetise their content. It points to Mr Bean as a recent beneficiary of the system."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/01/google-youtube-monetise-content

EFF Chastises YouTube, Seeks Fair Users; Public Knowledge, 2/4/09

Via Public Knowledge: EFF Chastises YouTube, Seeks Fair Users:

"In a post to the Deep Links blog yesterday, EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann makes it quite clear that he's had enough of Big Content's efforts to squelch fair uses on YouTube. He points to a recent spate of abusive takedowns--largely believed to be the result of a breakdown in negotiations between YouTube and the Warner Music Group--as evidence that the DMCA notice and takedown system is now being used blatantly as a tool for censorship, rather than copyright enforcement. His proposed solution comes in two parts. First, YouTube must fix Content ID, its automatic digital fingerprinting/filtering system...

Second, von Lohmann thinks that it's time for a little impact litigation and he's looking to the YouTube community for help".

http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/1976