Where's The Fair Use?

Riddikore

Riddikore

Overseer of Earth Realm
This video from Channel Awesome is spreading around the interwebs. Thought it might make for good discussion here. Have at it!

 
A lot of non-exclusive content has been placed into the Content ID Fingerprint Database, which is set up to hold solely owned content exclusively. Until this is corrected, abusive claims by so-called "rights management organizations" will continue. I agree with Channel Awesome that Big Business in the form of Hollywood and other major media companies are literally trying to put an end to free speech when they kill videos which criticize movies or music by major audio artists.

I personally think satire should be added to copyright law as a legal Fair Use alongside parody.

I've had many claims against my own compositions and mixes; in all cases the supposed "fingerprint match" either didn't match at all, or was a piece of fully licensed, royalty-free, non-exclusive media which shouldn't have been in the CID database to begin with. I've even had claims where the only thing which could be being claimed was my own voice performing hypnosis. In those cases, an "Ok, where are the royalties you obviously owe me if you are claiming rights in my recorded voice?" got the claimant off my back. They knew I was prepared to back it up with legal action to reclaim those royalties, possibly resulting in some nasty publicity.

He's right; something needs to change!
 
Last edited:
UKHypnotist said:
"Ok, where are the royalties you obviously owe me if you are claiming rights in my recorded voice?" got the claimant off my back.
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Hahaha would've loved to see their reaction when they read that.

I was surprised to see the group that did reviews from their car having to deal with with claims. I also agree it would be nice if there was some way to set aside that monetization money until the claim is resolved fairly.
 
Like many others have pointed out, this is a very serious issue. I don't think any content creator should go through such bulls**t, just because some companies want to have all the money and power they can get. There's now a Thunderclap campaign about WTFU. I support it and I suggest you do, as well. I hope this works and YouTube makes a complete change to the copyright system. Besides fixing the whole content recognizing algorithm and giving the content creators the right to fight the copyright claims, it would be a good idea if there were penalties for false copyright claims. That way we can be sure big companies will think twice before claiming videos. I hope the campaign works, but just in case, we need to be ready to take further action. If this is not enough, we can also make a petition and send it to YouTube, or something like that. If YouTube still doesn't budge, who knows? We might have to do something like a boycott, where we don't release new videos or something. If a large number of channels, big and small, do that, then YouTube will definitely consider the situation. The larger channels will definitely make a huge impact. Markiplier has shared Nostalgia Critic's video. If he can get PewDiePie to join the cause and even take action himself, imagine what would happen then. I really hope all of this works and YouTube starts treating us, the content creators fairly and with respect. We're the ones, who made this platform what it is right now and they owe us at least that.
 
It is truly scary to think about what YouTube has become and what it will become in the future. Smaller channels are in danger because they are basically not making money for YouTube but how can they if they are not allowed to create and grow? At the same time there are people that are getting popular; some by stealing content. The only reason they are still around is because they are making money for YouTube. This system is backwards and flawed.
 
There is a simple solution. pay an easy fee for copyrighted content, Lets say that on average a cover song or video with a sound recording gets 1,000 views. Lets say before uploading the video you picked the song you used and paid a 1 dollar fee to use that song in the video. 1,000 views. Now multiply this by the number of YouTubers uploading the same song paying 1 dollars. The copyright owner of that song would be earning money. If we can all 1.29 for an iTunes download we can certainly pay 1.00 for a song in a YouTube Video.
 
This is not just about using songs, however. People often make remixes, use copyrighted clips to make their own creations (YouTube Poops are a prime example) or critique movies, video games and other copyrighted materials. Paying a fee wouldn't really apply here, especially if said YouTubers don't have the money to do so. Not to mention, companies will also abuse this and charge astronomical fees even for 5 minutes worth of movie footage. Besides, fees shouldn't be necessary in the first place, because through Fair Use, you can use do the aforementioned things for FREE. The point is that neither YouTube, nor the companies care and they're restricting us from doing perfectly legal stuff. The best solution, both for the content creators and for the creative industry, in general, would be accepting the existence of Fair Use or, at least, restricting companies from acting against it.
 
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