[tweetmeme source=”katedickman” only_single=RT @KateDickman YouTube Copyright Issues Taken to the Next Level with Marky Mark Police]
I woke up to receive an email that read like this:
Subject: A Copyright Owner Has Claimed Content In One Of Your Videos
A copyright owner has claimed it owns some or all of the audio content in your video Random Kid Dancing In African Village. The audio content identified in your video is Good Vibrations by Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch. We regret to inform you that your video has been blocked from playback due to a music rights issue.
I understand and respect copyright laws but this just seems a bit excessive. I've had this particular 40 second video up for over a YEAR and never had a problem. This was the most NON-commercial use of a song you could ever imagine. It was footage I took on my trip to Ghana Africa in a small village where a young boy ran out of nowhere and started dancing to the music that was playing. His dance was absolutely hilarious so I decided to put "Good Vibrations" behind it to make it bit more entertaining. Now it's fully removed; all views and all comments because I violated a copyright? I do believe that YouTube didn't personally pull it down on their own but as stated above, the copyright owner did. Come on now? How far are we taking all of this? Pretty soon a child won't be able to do school projects without getting the rights to an image or video clip. This is the most innocent use of audio ever and I wasn't making money off of it. I suppose with the new ads YouTube is putting into place, someone is? Highly doubtful. (Their monetization methods are failing miserably) Either way, I just had to point out how ridiculous these times are getting and how people need to truly cool it with their policing. There seems to be a gray area between what could be considered friendly promotion and copyright infringement.
Well, the African boy's 15 minutes of fame are up! Sorry kiddo.