This week’s post is all about YouTube, if you couldn’t gather that from the title.
Some of you may remember the hilariously funny video I made comparing songs from Wilco’s then new album Sky Blue Sky with various influences. Well, sometime yesterday I got a message from YouTube saying that it was flagged for copyright violations by the mysterious WMG entity. I’m guessing that somebody from Warners has given YouTube sound files that they want to pattern match and their algorithm found one of their songs in my video. Then the automated process blocked the video and sent me a message telling me that I had probably violated WMG’s copyright. They did tell me that I could dispute the claim, but when I got to the form to file the dispute there were several warnings about the dire consequences of filing said dispute. At every step along the way, they warned me off. But I filed it anyway–not because I think it’s a fantastic video that the world needs to see, but because there isn’t a much clearer example of fair use than a video which uses snippets of songs for criticism. Nice try, Warners. My video was back up by the end of the day, but I think it’s still under review.
And with that, I’d like to post some other possible copyright violations. First, is the 13 year old boy playing YYZ.
Next is the 13 year old girl.
I’m partial to the girl.
Finally, I leave you with LOLCats, because no post about YouTube would be complete without a cat video.
Good for you, fight the power!
YUSSS! FIGHT THE POWER, JUSTIN!
Yeah I liked that video you made too.
Funny I’ve never looked for cats on youtube but today, before I read this, I was looking for them with Clara — after we looked at videos where cows go “moo,” others where sheep go “baaa,” ducks quacking and so on. I couldn’t believe how many hits these clips were getting (I am talking about a cow in a field actually going “moo”). I suppose there are a lot of winter-bound urban parents turning their infants on to farm animals via youtube.
Boy, WMG are all kinds of smart. It seems that Death Cab for Cutie were using YouTube videos on their site and, well, now they aren’t.
It kinda bums me out that YYZ is such an easy piece to showcase the talents of children! I’ve always gotten a “Rush” from that piece. I’ve not seen your video, mind posting the link?
Um. The link is there already.
It’s a good thing you didn’t use any Skid Row songs on that clip or you’d have Sebastian Bach on your ass.
“I would suggest if you want music for your video game videos, learn how to play an instrument, write a song, record it, and use it in your video. Because I have to feed my children and pay my bills with mine.”
Sebastian, YouTube videos and that reality show you did with the Nuge are the only reasons people haven’t forgotten who you are entirely. Now that you have no TV show and no YouTube promotion, you will slide back into obscurity where you belong. Good luck with that bill paying and children feeding!
Learn an instrument? Does Bach actually play anything? Also, what songs did he write? I thought someone else wrote that stuff.
Good point John. From a quick look at the track listings on the wiki, looks like Bach got partial credit for three Skid Row songs.
His first solo record is a live recording of Skid Row songs with 5 other studio tracks (presumably written by him). His 2nd solo record is all covers (Led Zep, Rush, Ozzy, etc – oh the nightmare). On his last solo record he got partial credit for 9 songs.
So really outside of the three Skid Row songs, I dont know how he could claim to make much money from his music. He must be feeding his children a lot of Ramen.
I can’t believe you looked all that up. You may be a bigger nerd than I am.
Even though Bach (or Bierk, since that’s his real name (maybe I am the bigger nerd (these nested parentheses would seem to indicate so))) didn’t write all those cover songs, he presumably gets some portion of royalties for recording them; he just doesn’t get the publishing royalties.
In order for him to get royalties from those songs, the actual recordings would have to have been used. Now, why would anyone want to use Bach’s version of Led Zeps Immigrant Song or Ozzy’s Crazy Train or god forbid, Rod Stewart’s Tonight’s the Night, instead of the original is beyond my comprehension. I can’t imagine any of those covers he recorded would ever get any play when the originals already get tons of play. Really, Sebastian, Communication Breakdown?
and Justin, was that a challenge to a Nerd-off?
Also, for him to get royalties from the performance of those covers, he has to have an interest in the production copyright of those songs, which I wouldnt be surprised if he didn’t since labels tend to like to keep those for themselves being as they usually are the ones paying for the recording.
He must not be getting much of anything if he is bickering over it with youtube.
He wouldn’t get royalties for the performance of those songs, but if the albums that those songs are on sold, he would get royalties from the sales of his recordings. So it is possible to make some money off of covers.
The only reason I can think that anybody would use Bach’s version of those songs in, say, a movie or TV show would be if they couldn’t get (or maybe couldn’t afford) the rights to the originals. This happens pretty frequently. But radio, yeah, I don’t know why they wouldn’t just play the original.
I think labels insisting on publishing is a fairly recent thing, since they are scrambling to hold on to as much money as possible nowadays.
I have a friend who is a HUGE Sebastian Bach fan. She saw him on Jeckyll/Hyde, has her picture with him, followed Skid Row on the road for months, etc etc. I just asked her if she had any of his solo records, and she said no. If she’s not buying those records, I can’t imagine who is… poor boy needs another reality show. maybe Brett Micheals will let him pretend to be Brett in some episodes of the rock of love, or whatever that show is called.