Youtube copyright claims - how f*cked up is the system?

swing68

Sorry if you've already seen this on my FB but I would be pulling my hair out if I had any ...

Again - bluntly: how f*cked is Youtube's copyright claim process?

A couple of weeks ago I tried to put up a vid of my son playing a Ferret brothers waltz called 'Gin-Gin' from the 30s (or earlier). Quite apart from the vintage, much of the old school Sinti music falls into the 'trad, arr.' category which, as the Pirate speak suggests, makes it public domain.

But that's not the farcical bit. See below the email I got from Youtube outlining the alleged copyright infringement.

1) They couldn't even get the name right. A badly implemented naive text search => slapdown? F*ck right off.

2) On YouTube studio I can see the claimant has doubled down on the initial idiocy by claiming infringement on a second count: namely, that a section of the melody from 1:01 - 2:39 is plagiarised.

Well, what a silly count.

The thing about these old waltzes is they're not jazz. Even though they can evolve over the decades, they're essentially set pieces. So it follows that if you plagiarise them, you plagiarise the bloody lot. To claim otherwise is incoherent.

Yes, of course I've raised an appeal, but if this is the level of logic and attention to detail we're dealing with, I'm not optimistic. My opinion of idiotic process automation and IP lawfare was never that high to begin with, but it sure got a whole lot worse - and the combination is a hell of a lot worse than the sum of the parts.

swing68

Meanwhile on Facebook, no problem:

https://www.facebook.com/100079510450511/videos/3523141921312031/ 

billyshakes

I think we got a copyright claim too for the concert video we recently posted. Since we weren't monetizing it, it wasn't blocked. However, I think that is just code for "Youtube will put whatever ad they want on it and then take the money for themselves." Youtube's whole thing is that they are just a platform for the creators and they just collect the money. They have zero creative input. And the whole 3 strikes you're out skews the game towards those who wish to issue these strikes rather than the people working hard to create interesting videos/content. They are really asking to be "disrupted" by someone else creating a platform with better terms. No doubt, Google would find a way to go after them (or just buy them out).

So, yeah, agreed, pretty messed up. The wrong name on the strike suggests to me that it is some bot that is looking for word combos or similar. I wonder if you just title it Chez Jaquet if you'd have the same results? Because I don't think Dre sampled Django's melody...😂

(BTW, very nice job to your son)

Buco

If I'm reading this correctly it didn't raise an issue with Gin Gin Chez Jacquet but with some Brazilian tune named Gin and Juice? What Bill said this was probably software flagged, no actual person looked into it. Could be you'll be fine if you reupload without Gin in the title...

billyshakes

Gin and Juice is a Snoop Dogg track. The Brazilian organization is just one of the license owners. See notes in the video below. You'll have to actually view it in Youtube to see the video notes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-2AUzHIjOE

wim

We can finally settle the authorship controversy of this tune. Was it from Ferret? Reinhardt? No, it was Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr.

Buco

Notes in the video description, music rights management stuff? Either way, seems to me that the algorithm mixed up @swing68 son's (@Baro_Bromberger if I'm connecting the dots right?) video with the Snoop track...no?

billyshakes

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/119913#Comment_119913

I wonder if Martha Stewart gets a co-write for the collab?

swing68

Thanks for the input, folks. Yes, I get it's a bot-generated naive text match, or some underpaid intern associated the song name with the Snoop/Dre track in YT's ContentID database. Cleaning up cacky data is a part of the day job I spend far too much time on!

Whatever the explanation, it's a shitshow. I guess my underlying question is: has anyone had better luck with dealing with this other than to smile, wave, appeal and hope for the best?

@Buco - Sir, I salute your dot-joining skills. Show me an AI that can do that, and I'll show y'all a flying pig!

Buco

I never had a video blocked. A few times I got a copyright claim, as well as our recent band video, but all it said was I can't monetize the video. I'd think easiest would be to delete and reupload and at that time not use Gin in the title. Or appeal, if a real person ends up looking into it they'll remove the flag.

swing68

@Buco thanks - pragmatically a reload might be for the best in this instance but I'm buggered if I'm going to second-guess YT's flawed detection algo every time I put something up in the future.