Copyright Question RE music

[ScouseMouse]

Hi all, I have a quick copyright question that I wanted to check out before I go ahead and do it and end up getting into trouble with Youtube.

So I have a gaming channel and I was thinking about maybe doing a few videos of Guitar Hero. I assume that normally that's totally fine having the songs in your video because they're never the proper song, it's always a cover version made to sound very similar?

My concern is that I have the Metallica version of Guitar Hero where probably 80% of the songs are by Metallica and they are all official/the real songs, would this be fine to use and monetize?

Are both types fine, or only one, or neither?

Cheers in advance
Paul

 

[UKHypnotist]

In two words: Metallica NO.

For the other: make contact with the game developer's Legal Department and ask, if your license for the game doesn't mention commercial usage for YouTube. If on the other hand your license says non-commercial or personal use only, you cannot monetize anything out of the game without actually asking the developer for a commercial license.

 

[subversiveasset]

Just wanted to make a comment in general about music copyright.

RedOctane and Activision likely had to license the right to cover the music in Guitar Hero -- that would apply not only to Metallica, but to all the other songs, even if the cover version differed slightly from the original. Licensing for cover versions typically does not carry through -- you can't say, "Well, because Activision licensed for use in the game; therefore, I'm also under that license." Since Activision doesn't have an exclusive right to the songs themselves, they cannot exclusively manage the copyright for derivative works within the games.

That is to say, you should probably expect content ID claims from the folks representing the artists.

 

[UKHypnotist]

Amen to what @subversiveasset just said!