I got flagged for "copyright issues" on Facebook

[TBman]

A video I posted about 3 years ago, a cover of one of Gin's tunes, was flagged and it was removed/blocked in "279 countries."

So I was given the choice to delete it, which I did. I could care less.

The only thing I wonder about is that in as much as I don't sell covers and it is basically just advertising for the original artists, what's the issue? (Also it was posted on my personal Facebook page).

When I see a cover on YT, for instance, that I like of an artist I'm not familiar with, I always check out what else the original artist has done, not just the person doing the cover. I guess other people don't do this?

[jim1960]

The most likely scenario is that the person who owns the rights raised an objection.

[keith.rogers]

Originally Posted by jim1960

The most likely scenario is that the person who owns the rights raised an objection.

Yes.
I've posted covers on Facebook and YouTube both. Only once did I get a copyright "strike" but it was time to learn about all this stuff. YouTube tries to monetize *everything* so they don't care about covers, especially if it gets a lot of plays, because that means more time to stick ads in front of people. But, if the owner of the song makes a "claim" they've got some system that distributes some fraction of their ad revenue to the actual copyright holder.

Some copyright holders don't want Google's "filthy lucre" from covers so when one of those is posted and they see it, they tell YT to take down the video, which results in a strike against the poster. ("3 strikes and you're out," i.e., your channel is shut down.)

I assume FB has some similar mechanism, but while they have as many users probably, they don't have the scope of licensing that YT has certainly employed, so there may be regions that are not getting money into the hands of people that expect it (not to be confused with the person that actually wrote the song). So, it could be as simple as a publisher in some foreign country that has the rights to the song is not getting monetized by FB and says "take it down." Nothing to do with the original artist. YT blocks distribution in that country, but I don't think FB has that level of control. (If you post it on YT and it stays up, that will tell you if there's a difference.) Anyway, off on a tangent/screed now....

[TBman]

Maybe Gin thought my cover was so bad he didn't want me to trash his name,

[keith.rogers]

Originally Posted by TBman

Maybe Gin thought my cover was so bad he didn't want me to trash his name,

Half of my covers don't even get a copyright claim... At least yours was recognizable

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by TBman

A video I posted about 3 years ago, a cover of one of Gin's tunes, was flagged and it was removed/blocked in "279 countries."

So I was given the choice to delete it, which I did. I could care less.

The only thing I wonder about is that in as much as I don't sell covers and it is basically just advertising for the original artists, what's the issue? (Also it was posted on my personal Facebook page).

When I see a cover on YT, for instance, that I like of an artist I'm not familiar with, I always check out what else the original artist has done, not just the person doing the cover. I guess other people don't do this?

The issue is that covers are a violation of copyright law. Youtube's monetization scheme is a work around to provide payment to the original artist, the person doing the cover, and Youtube, but if the copyright holder objects to the process then that artist's covers are removed and the poster gets a strike.

We, as players, often try to justify why it should be OK to post covers, but our rationalization doesn't make it any more legally OK to plagiarize the work of others.

What we do as listeners when we listen to covers is irrelevant to the concept of copyright.

I have a Youtube channel and I only post my own compositions or pieces that fall within public domain works. I think there is a way to check ahead of time to verify that a cover is OK to post, but I've personally never needed to do that.

Rick Beato has some really great videos dealing with the whole copyright strike issue on Youtube, which he has occasionally ran into when doing some of his "What Makes This Song Great?" videos.

[TBman]

Its sort of a double edge sword though.

Granted, guitar players who want to cover someone else's tunes and share them on social media may make up a small percentage of listeners, but if I can't post my covers of tunes I like on social media I

won't bother buying the notation/book
won't bother buying the music track/cd
won't bother to alert others to the artist's work

I'm an instrumentalist. Instrumental guitar is a small niche and you would think the artists that publish their work would welcome the "brand" recognition that covers bring to their work.

So as a result, I won't bother to learn and cover any more tunes by Gin. He's done from my point of view and I have no incentive to listen to any of his works past, present or future.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by TBman

Maybe Gin thought my cover was so bad he didn't want me to trash his name,

LOL, Barry, although we all know that isn't the truth. BTW, who is Gin?

Are there bots that crawl YouTube to search for "copyright issues"? At least for major artists?

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

LOL, Barry, although we all know that isn't the truth. BTW, who is Gin?

Are there bots that crawl YouTube to search for "copyright issues"? At least for major artists?

Gin? Never heard of him.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by TBman

...if I can't post my covers of tunes I like on social media I

won't bother buying the notation/book
won't bother buying the music track/cd
won't bother to alert others to the artist's work

I'm an instrumentalist. Instrumental guitar is a small niche and you would think the artists that publish their work would welcome the "brand" recognition that covers bring to their work.

So as a result, I won't bother to learn and cover any more tunes by Gin. He's done from my point of view and I have no incentive to listen to any of his works past, present or future.

TB, what you've essentially said here is that unless the owner of the music gives you the publishing rights for free, you won't play the music and you'll even go so far as to ignore the music. This sounds like the kind of rationale some restaurant owners make when they expect musicians to provide live music "for the exposure" rather than for pay.

By ignoring a piece of music you like, you're removing joy from your life. If a piece of music brings you some amount of joy, play that music. Joy should be the goal, not facebook videos.

[Rudy4]

It's always our prerogative to "Cut off our nose to spite our face".

Some "social media" websites handle the cover thing in different ways. One of the other forums I've often participated on allows direct uploading of mp3 covers and has a users agreement and pays the necessary royalties so there's no copyright violation.

It is the responsibility of the poster to make sure their covers can be legally posted before they upload.

Youtube has recently added better filters that detect copyrighted material as it's being uploaded and notifies the user that it won't be authorized to be published.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by jim1960

TB, what you've essentially said here is that unless the owner of the music gives you the publishing rights for free, you won't play the music and you'll even go so far as to ignore the music. This sounds like the kind of rationale some restaurant owners make when they expect musicians to provide live music "for the exposure" rather than for pay.

By ignoring a piece of music you like, you're removing joy from your life. If a piece of music brings you some amount of joy, play that music. Joy should be the goal, not facebook videos.

I don't think the restaurant comparison you make is accurate. I'm not getting paid to play the tunes and I'm not making money directly or indirectly from the covers. I'm not expecting Gin to give me his cd or notation for free.

I play guitar and record for my own enjoyment. Part of that enjoyment comes from sharing my covers of tunes here and other social media outlets. To learn the covers I will buy the notation and the "cd" or pay for the download. Its rare that I learn a cover from another cover, but I learn of new artists from the covers done by others.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

It's always our prerogative to "Cut off our nose to spite our face".

Some "social media" websites handle the cover thing in different ways. One of the other forums I've often participated on allows direct uploading of mp3 covers and has a users agreement and pays the necessary royalties so there's no copyright violation.

It is the responsibility of the poster to make sure their covers can be legally posted before they upload.

Youtube has recently added better filters that detect copyrighted material as it's being uploaded and notifies the user that it won't be authorized to be published.

What would happen to our "Show & Tell" section if people couldn't post covers?

Isn't every recent tune created covered by copyright law? Wouldn't every cover here in our sub forum be a violation of copyrights unless permission is received by the original artist to post it?

[Shepsdad]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

LOL, Barry, although we all know that isn't the truth. BTW, who is Gin?

Are there bots that crawl YouTube to search for "copyright issues"? At least for major artists?

I posted an audio only “video” on my channel, it was my elderly neighbor playing and singing a Willie Nelson classic, and it received a “copyright warning” (whatever that is) the moment it was published. So yes, YouTube has software that detects known music instantly.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by Shepsdad

I posted an audio only “video” on my channel, it was my elderly neighbor playing and singing a Willie Nelson classic, and it received a “copyright warning” (whatever that is) the moment it was published. So yes, YouTube has software that detects known music instantly.

I thought there was a bot of some kind, or a filter on upload for some.

Some YouTubers have said that when they play covers to demo gear that they intentionally make little changes to avoid copyright issues.