YouTube, the Internet Archives and Copyright….

This first video was made back in 2010..we took a walk. I, camera in hand wanted to try and capture the flavor of our area and put it up on the YouTube for my family’s pleasure…I chose the Blue Danube Waltz to musically represent Arco, because our town once was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and would have often heard the likes of it in it’s not so distant past.  I found a 1934 copy on the Internet Archives…public domain therefore, right?  Seems it’s not always so…

It all began when I thought I take some of my many photographs and put them to music…I’d never used programs to create videos and it was not easy to put them together…the results are just so so.  The most difficult part was finding where I could download music that was not covered by some sort of copy write…these laws, which were created to protect the artists way back in time (if I remember correctly the first were created in England in the 1600s) have become really invasive…from 10 years in the beginning now days they’ve passed from 50 years renewable….and sometimes more.  Not only in the United States by the way but in Europe as well…don’t know about the rest of the world.

This video was my first ever experiment…I  received a contestation…the music seems was under copy write, at least according to someone!  This recording came from the Internet Archives as the music above…a 1928 version of Cannon’s Jug Stompers,  Viola Lee Blues.  I rejected it, giving my reasons, then a new note came up…and here it is:

“Your video may include music that is owned by a third party.

To hear the matched music please play the video on the right. The video will play from the point where the matched content was identified.

Your video is blocked in some countries.

Here are the details:

• “Cannon’s Jug Stompers-Viola Lee Blues”, sound recording administered by: 0:01

  SME Dispute rejected; claim has been reinstated.

  Koch Entertainment

To learn more about how claims impact your videos click here. ”

At present as you can see if you’ve clicked the “Your video is blocked…etc.” this video cannot be seen in Germany.

So, although I had fun doing my 4 or 5 videos, I decided it wasn’t worth the bother to pursue this activity…apart from the fact I’d have to really find a better program…learn how to use it…and all that, it’s time consuming work, and I’d have to create my own music too!

Often music publishers (seems some film and book publishers do the same) rake the public domain and then make compilations which they put up for sale, sometimes they even copy write their edition, including content, though in fact they shouldn’t be able to do so, as they’ve no right to ownership of the original work, just their publishing effort.  Due to the present state of the laws, you run into this problem very often.

Oh and the irony of this is that who’s contesting me here is “Koch Entertainment” … my last name is Koch, no relationship obviously …