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Let us dig into what we know about copyright on Youtube and in general, and also what we
do not know about copyright on the Internet. We know that copyright is a form of legal
protection, so what else do YouTube users need to learn about it?
To get a good start of knowing about copyright, they should visit the Copyright center by
clicking the Copyright link at the bottom of the YouTube homepage. There you’ll find
the Copyright School where you can take interactive lessons and resources on how to respond to
copyright issues should you ever get a strike on your account. Just a reminder, the information
there is not legal advice, so if you do not understand how copyright works on the Internet,
they should contact a legal counsel or lawyer. Not many of us, including teens, are knowledgeable
about copyright on YouTube, which is why the information is there to serve as a guide.
It’s also important for others to know about the copyright laws in their countries as well.
A lot of people who got videos removed for copyright saying that similar videos aren’t
removed, why is this? Instead of being concerned about others, they
should follow their own path, and not do what others are doing, but instead, they should
make their own video that is completely new and original – Chances are they too are
infringing copyright, and it is up to the copyright owners to determine who gets to
use their content and how the content is distributed. A single video takedown for copyright, doesn’t
trigger a cascade effect, meaning when one domino falls, the rest go down with it. All
it takes is a DMCA or Content ID claim for a video containing third party content to
get it taken down. As for Content ID, the system asks YouTube what to do with videos
that use their intellectual properties, so that it blocks and/or tracks their content
in real-time based on rules set by the content owners.
What should YouTube users do if they see someone infringing copyright?
Well they’ll have to tell the content providers about that, because only they can take action.
If they are reporting the content on the behalf of the content providers, the people at YouTube
won’t be able to help you. What happens if their video gets muted or
blocked? This will happen if you find using audio or
video materials that belong to someone else that you did not get permission from. The
best defense in making sure you do not get your video muted or blocked is to get permission
from the copyright owner before posting your videos containing their work. But in the case
of accidental pickup of copyrighted audio or music from a pageant or family outing,
for example, those can be disputed or challenged as fair use since the person doing the filming
did not have much control over it.
What about filming concerts, live performances, and similar events?
These are also subject to copyright because these days, there are camera policies forbidding
video cameras and audio recordings of those activities, which vary from venue to venue.
To determine if cameras and audio recordings are permitted, what I would do is contact
the organizers directly, or check out the organizer’s website. The place of venue,
such as a coliseum or a civic center, may not tell you that, though. The likely reason
for this is because they do not want their event to be streamed anywhere online.
In cases of fair use, who has a hand in that decision?
Well YouTube doesn’t have a hand in deciding what’s fair use, and what is not fair use,
this is something that will need to be decided in a court of law. Since YouTube or Google
do not work for the legal department, they will not be able to give you any advice on
that. Some people claim they gave credit for using
copyrighted content or bought the music elsewhere. Well, these alone won’t grant you immunity
from copyright infringement, or entitle you to upload videos that use these materials.
You will still need to seek permission to use their content with your video.
What about partial use of copyrighted content? Again, this will not grant you immunity, but
the best defense here is permission from the content owners.
So how do people get permission to use content created by others?
A good way to begin is to look for the name of the artist, music label, brand or company
name of the content. Once you have that, you can type these things into Google search to
track down their websites or contact information. Another way is to find them on social networking
sites, such as Facebook or Twitter. What happens if you find that someone copied
or use your video without your knowledge or permission?
If this happens, you will need to file a DMCA takedown notice. It’s not really good to
see that your original content is being used by someone else or an organization without
you knowing about it. A lot of people think YouTube is a public
domain site, is that so? Absolutely not. Everything you see on YouTube,
and on Google, especially when you are searching for pictures, video, or music, all of that
is subject to copyright, unless said otherwise. Seeing that all of this stuff is up for grabs,
all of us need to take copyright into consideration when using someone else’s content off the
Web. And if you’re using these materials for evaluative purposes, your best bet is
to discard these materials after use for the respect of the copyright owners.