How does Youtube determine that a song is a cover?

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leadlungbetty

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I noticed some people saying their youtube videos were taken down because it was a cover. And I noticed sometimes when people use background music from a major label it gets taken down. But I find it hard to believe that youtube is able to go through all of their videos by hand. Do you think they have a software that compares music between videos?
 
Most likely word gets back to the copyright holders who tell YouTube to remove the video.
 
That's exactly it.

The various media companies spend days, weeks, and months, combing through youtube looking for covers and copyrighted material.

They also actively comb p2p networks, torrent listing servers, and in recent years they've deliberately hacked up clients like bittorrent so they can feed garbage into people's downloaded music in addition to filing lawsuits to bankrupt people who share, use, and distribute copyrighted material.

It's the same stuff a patent holder does when someone uses their patent without permission, which usually requires a per-unit fee or purchase of the patent outright to make the thing the patent describes.

A well known example was a patent held by Robert Kearns - he invented delayed windshield wipers, also called intermittent wipers - and tried to interest the big three (Ford, GM, Chrysler) in licensing his idea in 1964-65. All three rejected the idea but immediately started offering intermittent wipers on most of their cars anyway, starting around 1969.

And, he sued them :)
 
After hours of research I found they DO have a program called digital fingerprinting program that helps copyright holders filter possible infringements.

Sad however, as I'm reading various articles on this I come across examples of various corporations using similar programs to identify media, and many many many legal uses get caught in the filter based on anything from media tags to video titles. On Vimeo, several creative commons videos got caught in the filter too.

I seriously don't know where to even stand on the subject. I'm a copyright holder. I've made some money from things like selling records and doing shows but I don't ever make any money from holding on to my copyrights so tightly. I would totally find it flattering if some fan decided to sing or rap one of my songs on Youtube :p I think it would bring people to seek out my record if they liked it. The money I'd make from sales based on that promotion would easily outweigh the fees I'd ever get from licensing the work to a fan.

Speaking of which, I wonder, does it cost a lot to get permission to cover a song from a major publisher for broadcast rights? Has anyone tried to get permission to cover a song and broadcast it?
 
I think as you do. I would find a cover flattering, as long as that cover doesn't produce income without a license. A free fun thing on youtube would be fine by me.

However, if an artist covers my song and makes $20M, being that it's my song, I would expect some of those dollars. Not all, for that artist performed my song, and they own the performance and the "spin" or "flavor" they put on my song. But it is my song.

leadlungbetty said:
Speaking of which, I wonder, does it cost a lot to get permission to cover a song from a major publisher for broadcast rights? Has anyone tried to get permission to cover a song and broadcast it?
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You can license music from various places, including ascap and others. This was the problem in the 80's where rappers were "sampling" tracks and putting their own lyrics over existing music - without permission.

And yes, the original songwriter should be compensated for those sampled tracks, and yes, often times that sampling brings new life to the original, un-rapped track.

The exception is advertising commercials. Best I can tell, you can "steal" commercial music for an advertisement without issue, without even giving a credit.

GM did that with their "Chevro-lation time c'mon" ads for about five years in the early to mid 90's - not one dime to the orignal songwriters.
 
frederic said:
However, if an artist covers my song and makes $20M, being that it's my song, I would expect some of those dollars. Not all, for that artist performed my song, and they own the performance and the "spin" or "flavor" they put on my song. But it is my song.
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For sales of the song, you would get mechanical royalties at the statutory rate, probably licensed by the Harry Fox Agency. HFA also covers digital licensing.



You can license music from various places, including ascap and others. This was the problem in the 80's where rappers were "sampling" tracks and putting their own lyrics over existing music - without permission.
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Sampling is not treated as a performance or mechanical royalty; it has to be negotiated. You would license music from a PRO (such as ASCAP) if you were going to publicly perform a composition.


The exception is advertising commercials. Best I can tell, you can "steal" commercial music for an advertisement without issue, without even giving a credit.
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That is not true, that is called a synchronization license, and that also requires negotiation. The PROs will handle sync licenses I think . . . there is also the issue of a master recording license which would have to be handled if you wanted to use the recording and not just the composition.

Now, in your example if Kool & the Gang were not the composers of "Celebration", then they wouldn't be entitled to any compensation because Chevy didn't use their recording. But the songwriter would.
 
What if you were to post an acoustic guitar cover while singing, and change the words to the song entirely?

You can't copyright chords...so how would they determine it is a cover. What if you just simply put "NOT a cover of so and so..." in the title or something clever.
 
mshilarious said:
Now, in your example if Kool & the Gang were not the composers of "Celebration", then they wouldn't be entitled to any compensation because Chevy didn't use their recording. But the songwriter would.
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It's been a long time since Chevy used Celebration as the foundation for their commercials, but I remember a lot of hoopla about it. ::headscratch:: I wish my memory worked better. lol
 
MaChMa said:
What if you were to post an acoustic guitar cover while singing, and change the words to the song entirely?

You can't copyright chords...so how would they determine it is a cover. What if you just simply put "NOT a cover of so and so..." in the title or something clever.
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It is correct that a chord progression cannot be copyrighted, but a melody can be. However, if your cover qualifies as a parody then it is a protected use.
 
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