Video of an old standard deleted suddenly

Hello,

I had a video deleted from YouTube recently. I did a version of Let's Get Lost which obviously I didn't write. In it I assumed the persona of Elvis Jagger also known as my real name. I did so in the vein of Elvis Costello.
I thought it was funny.

Anyway it stayed on YouTube and got close to 800 views. Today I find that it disappeared because I violated terms of service though I never received notice to that effect. I only found that I had violated service by googling the video.

What puzzles me is that there are many amateur videos of this song on YouTube. When I chose the name Elvis Jagger I had no idea that there was also some cartoon character out there called Elvis Jagger Abdul something or other.

Any thoughts or guidance? Ukulele musicians do post videos of standards often don't they, with no intent to profit from those videos?
I do not have permission to use the song but how do others get away with it? I was not making money from my video. Did a certain Mr. Jagger get pissed off?


I have recently copyrighted a song and joined ASCAP. Supposedly this song is on some popular Spotify list and I have a video for the song. Does any of this factor in?

I've got a number of standards I wish to perform and make videos of.

Thanks
 
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Correction of original

Inadvertently on my first post I said that it was obvious I did write Let's Get Lost. I meant DIDN'T. I wish I wrote. Sorry.
 
The "arguments" for and against copyright arise frequently on music forums.

The nett answer is violating copyright is against the law!

Ignorance of the law is no excuse in law.

Just be thankful you weren't subjected to any kind of legal proceedings, which would have cost you money, irrespective of the outcome.

Just because "other people" appear to "get away with it" doesn't mean you're entitled to break the law.

The various copyright laws differ from country to country, so even if no-one complains on one side of the ocean doesn't mean you can't get prosecuted from elsewhere (even more expensive!)

You could look on the bright side ... maybe your performance was so good it was deemed to be a threat ;)

:music:
 
Kypfer,

Thank you for your response. Well said. I am having some trouble finding out whether the song I recorded is copyrighted or not. I watched a video about searching for copyright but nothing came up. I certainly had no intention of monetizing my video.

Anyone have a quick way to see whether a jazz standard is copyrighted?
 
Really tough to say why your particular video got flagged. It could be keywords in the description like "Jagger" or "Elvis Jagger". It could be the video content itself though that is unlikely if you shot if yourself. I know I have gotten flagged when I took another video, added a bumper or countdown timer or whatnot and reposted. Or it could be that a lawyer or artist found the video and requested to YouTube it be taken down. Who knows.

I do find it odd you got no email notification.

Yes it is illegal, but yes "everybody" does it, and most artists are happy to get the extra publicity. Kypfer is right but frankly I don't worry about it. Could you be prosecuted? Technically I suppose so, but I've never heard of it when there wasn't real money involved (think David Bowie suing Vanilla Ice).

My advice would be go ahead and post your vids. The worst thing that is likely to happen is what just happened.

But if you get a knock on the door and two goons from ASCAP have a pair of cement loafers with your name on it, you're on your own. :p ;)
 
I once posted a uke solo of Bach's Minuet in G on YouTube, specifically for a friend and as I was in a hurry I simply titled it "Minuet." Within the hour it got take down for "copyright infringement" claimed by some band I had never heard of who had a song, entirely unrelated, titled "Minuet" - never mind that the melody and chord structure was completely different and Bach's composition was no longer under copyright! YT emailed me so much legalize that I shut down my YT account then and there as I just didn't want to waste time or energy on it.

You can look up copyright here at Library of Congress; it's a little fiddly but once you get the hang of an advanced search it's pretty straightforward. Jimmy McHugh's estate owns the copyright to Let's Get Lost.
 
This kind of stuff is exactly why I have Legal Shield. (Shameless plug)
 
The reason that some people get away with it is that they agree to let the video be monetized and payment goes to the copyright holder (not the channel owner).
 
A song title cannot be copywritten. (Is that a word?) There are many songs that share titles. When my Aunt Vera turned 100, she asked a piano player at her party to play a song that her sweetheart, my Uncle George, sang to her when they were courting, probably seventy years ago, titled Have I Told You Lately That I Love You. He said sure he knew the song and proceeded to play a song written by Van Morrison, that he'd learned from Rod Stewart, called Have I Told You Lately That I Love You.
Aunt Vera whispered to me, "That's a nice song, but it's not the one that George used to sing." Of course the version she wanted was the Scotty Wiseman version from 1943.

Here are two different songs with the same title:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPJzLCQq4h0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFF1wJN75Z0
 
A song title cannot be copywritten. (Is that a word?) There are many songs that share titles. When my Aunt Vera turned 100, she asked a piano player at her party to play a song that her sweetheart, my Uncle George, sang to her when they were courting, probably seventy years ago, titled Have I Told You Lately That I Love You. He said sure he knew the song and proceeded to play a song written by Van Morrison, that he'd learned from Rod Stewart, called Have I Told You Lately That I Love You.
Aunt Vera whispered to me, "That's a nice song, but it's not the one that George used to sing." Of course the version she wanted was the Scotty Wiseman version from 1943.

Without the text of the email from YouTube there's no way to know what got the video pulled. The channel owner can appeal to YouTube if he or she believes YouTube has pulled the video in error, but “Performing Right” belongs to the copyright holder so unless the song is in the public domain the channel owner is out of luck.
 
Todd Snider wrote a song called Beer Run , with the line "B, double E, double R, U, N. Beer Run!". When he introduces it, he'll sometimes say, "Here's a song I wrote and then, a few years later, Garth Brooks wrote it again."
Garth's song is different, but it is called Beer Run and also has the line "B, double E, double R, U, N. Beer Run!".
 
I post covers all the time and have never been challenged. In fact YouTube says that I am in good standing regarding copyright.

I suspect the issue is that I always state that the song is a cover and who I covered. Perhaps the error is that you failed to credit who you covered.

Maybe?

You should ask YouTube why they took the video down.

Anthony
 
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