Filed under: Audio, Internet, Video, Google, Web
Google quietly deals with YouTube audio copyright violations
But it means that there are now a fair number of music videos as well as fan made videos on YouTube that are video-only. If you've ever wondered how well Seal's Kiss From a Rose video holds up without the actual song,now's your chance to find out. Or you can check out an alternate version of the video, also sans music.
Fortunately there's still music accompanying Rick Astley's dance moves.
The decision to remove just the music from the unofficially uploaded videos makes sense in the case of fan made movies. But for music videos, it seems like an odd move, since the music studios own the rights to the video and not just the music.
[via Mashable]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
maty said 2:19PM on 1-14-2009
After the announcement that YouTube would remove popular videos with swearing or other marginally offensive content, I'm surprised people are still using the service, particularly now.
Of course the record companies have a copyright to their music which they're entitled to - but when the music videos are available on the record company's YouTube profile for anyone to view anyway, where's the harm in allowing others to make videos with those soundtracks that are already available?
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bhtooefr said 3:30PM on 1-14-2009
The reason why they're just removing the audio is... this is automated. Google's got servers comparing copyrighted tracks to existing videos. When it finds something that it thinks sounds the same, it pulls the sound, as I understand.
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Jash Sayani said 4:55PM on 1-14-2009
Yeah, YouTube had become the source of free music... Just find the music video and enter the URL in sites like VidtoMp3.com and you get the audio track ripped as an MP3....
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gonintendo said 11:51PM on 1-14-2009
Only it sounds like garbage.
Jash Sayani said 1:22AM on 1-15-2009
@gonintendo: That's what I thought at first, but surprisingly, it was better than the P2P quality. It was a 192 kbps file !!
There are many sites to do this and some really give crappy files, but the one is mentioned is awesome!!
James said 11:12AM on 1-15-2009
I know a couple of people who would be like "Oh, there's this song I wanted you to hear" and instead of going to Amazon or iTunes to buy it or even just play a sample/demo, they'd just search YouTube and get like a dozen hits. I was surprised to discover that, and I guess Google is just now realizing the same thing.
Still, I think they should wait until the copyright holder of at least the individual song registers as "don't let people use this" -- which might be what they do already, I guess.
Stuart Halliday said 10:33AM on 1-16-2009
YouTube videos have a crappy 12KHz (IIRC) sample rate on sound, so even if you do run it through an audio to MP3 program or web site at 320Kbps, it'll still sound like 12KHz.
If you don't understand how, then read up about sound sampling. :-)
Mozzball said 11:51PM on 1-14-2009
Well music videos don't really make them money directly, except maybe where it promotes the song, so the music being steal-able makes the audio the primary liability for them by far. Although, I still generally think the music industry has been pretty tyrannical in their approaches.
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Stuart Halliday said 10:33AM on 1-16-2009
Quite why people put up copyright tracks when they signed an agreement with YouTube not to do so when they got an account and also have to acknowledge that what they're about to upload is theirs is very odd behaviour.
I think YouTube should put in place an anonymous voting system on each video. So that if enough votes are placed, YouTube goes and looks and decides to remove it or not.
Easy.
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T.S. Elliott said 4:11PM on 1-16-2009
What about when you just want to use the background music and make up your own words, like a parody - some say this is legal and some say it is a copyright violation - how do you really know??? T.S.
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dazza said 3:10AM on 1-20-2009
This is the begining of the end of youtube.
You can not record and upload your own clips if there is any copyright material playing within range of your microphone.
If this isn't stopping freedom of speak what is.
Will newsreports that have music in the background also be banned.
Does this mean public events that have music in the background can no longer be heard.
A sound clip as apposed to a sound track should be allowed.
Incidental music is almost impossible to prevent in video clips.
Are we going to see pay per view on youtube.
Well I changed my youtube password and email to a random number and addy. I will not be part of the silent movies or support youtube in anyway.
As for sony, I shake my head and hope that people recording what is happening around them in public and share it on the internet is something that becomes a legal right. Regardless of copyright on the background noise ( as much of todays music is )
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fed said 7:26AM on 1-30-2009
In my case I composed a well engineered video audio clip and had the multiple audio sources mixed together at varying levels at various times through out. This vid ran for about 2 years and had gathered many comments and favorites amongst the members. I was appalled to find the audio muted, and some pathetic offer from you tube to replace the audio with some generic crap that they offer as an over dub. What a joke.
You tube be dead in no time!
Atanas Boev said 5:03PM on 2-07-2009
"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by WMG." and this is true for both links.
Fortunately, Rick is still online:)
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Jade said 10:44PM on 2-19-2009
If its illegal, then why are there so many fan music video sites out there?
Like I've seen official fan video site for tv shows and movies like: Lost, Stargate, Star Wars, Star Trek, X-Files, Buffy, Smallville, Anime...etc.
I mean, if you look at theforce.net under fan films, there is a fan made video, where some fan took some behind the scenes footage, added some backgrounds, and even put the lightsaber and blaster effects. It was accepted! And theforce.net is owned by Lucas(Companies).
I seriously think this stuff is not illegal. If it really was, then there would be agents at every door and the courts would be flooded with this crap!
Fans are making any money. So what if they do this. It promotes their stuff. Gets people to go buy albums, movies, tv show seasons. In a sense, they are getting more money because of this.
I made a fan video, had 5 people who had never seen the movie before, they all went out and bought it! And 3 of them went to amazing and buy the song!
And then what's next. You are recording your own stuff with your own camera, the radio is on, and it gets rejected before it happen to hear a song?!?
Or why stop with music and movies. Why not sue every fan who makes fan art, fan fiction, or fan constumes!
As long as no money is being made, you are safe to make this. I've never heard of anyone saying they had police, FBI or a government/legal agent come to their house, saying 'stop making videos' or making them go to jail or pay a fine!
I mean, I bought all my movies and music. Why can't I make a fan video, show my friends. That's be like I draw a picture of some famous person or a clip from a movie or album cover. And they say its copyright!
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Kyle said 11:34PM on 3-17-2009
so this is how youtube ends......sad
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Bobby said 8:49AM on 4-12-2009
There's an open-source site for downloading YouTube audio/video:
http://www.youtensils.org
Audio quality varies between videos. Personally YouTube is a good source for live performances but for anything else you're better off paying $1 on Amazon.
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