copyright and original songs on youtube

garyg

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I couldn't find anything in the archives about this, but I'm curious about what y'all do regarding posting videos of original material on YouTube. Posting it should automatically copyright it, although if you don't register the copyright you are limited in the damages you can claim, but I'm wondering if anyone worries about this at all? Or do you just post it and let er roll? TIA, g2
 
Since I don't write music I don't worry about that side of it. But I do worry about posting on youtube since they seem to just pick at random and the poster has no recourse.

with over 5000+ videos of what a wonderful world, and millions of pure crap videos they chose me and one other person to pick on for a nice classical guitar rendition of this piece. No warning, no chance to pull it down. they gave me one permanent black mark which now prevents me from posting videos privately for friends and two more marks and my account gets removed.

What Pissed me off is that I never got a chance to pull it down, 5000+ other videos are still up, and if I choose to fight it they can SUE me if they win.

So while youtube is useful, it's anybody's guess how copyright issues are enforced!
 
@Olarte, Okay, I'm sorry to hear about your experience, but I'm not talking about playing copyrighted songs, I'm asking about whether folks worry about their original material being pirated or how they deal with that, or if there's anything to worry about. ciao, g2
 
I copyright all my original stuff with our national copyright association, just to be on the safe side.

A few years back, I asked a similar question to a music label owner here in Switzerland and he told me that if you upload a song onto the internet, the content is obviously recorded and the site will state when exactly that piece of content was created. Because of that, it is automatically protected. He also explained that in the pre-internet era, musicians used to tape demos of their music onto cassettes--remember those?--and mailed them to themselves without opening the package. The date on the stamp would protect the content.

That's all I know.
 
Thanks Doug, that's perfect. I guess the reason that my search didn't pick it up is because I spelled copyright without the w <g>. Go Bears, g2
 
same here, i just write COPYRIGHT in capitals and my name, the year and the name of the song in my original videos!
However, youtube did say that there was copyright material in a song that I wrote which proves that they're copyrighting is a bit off really
 
Just about every song I have posted on YouTube is an original, with two exceptions being public domain songs. I have filed copyright on those many years ago becaused they appeared on albums played with acoustic and electric guitar.

If I wrote any tunes today, I'd most likely file for copyright protection as a "collection" of songs, much like a do for photographic works. Publishing your work gives you a five-year grace period to file for copyright under United States law. If you fail to file copyright, the most you can win is a cease order-- very little likelihood of getting any award for damages.

Copyright filing fees have increased quite a bit since I first filed one (1980). Like everything else, the government looks at everything as a money-maker these days.

BTW... all of my songs are filed with ASCAP for performance royalties.
 
Olarte, I checked out your YT and it brought memories of my few months of classical guitar lessons 20+ years ago. I had no idea of the title before but your Etude No 2 brought memories. Thanks

Can you play Paganini Caprice No 24? Paul Luongo plays a mean version on uke!!!
 
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Thanks, I have not posted there in a long time. I have some much better
Pieces but want to wait a bit until they are a bit ore polished. And there is always the issue of being given a 2nd strike on YouTube as far as I'm concerned on a random basis.

No I don't play the Paganini Caprice, but would love to find a score...

Right now I'm starting to learn Cavatina, and beginning to work on some basic classical pieces for Uke.

Ivan

Olarte, I checked out your YT and it brought memories of my few months of classical guitar lessons 20+ years ago. I had no idea of the title before but your Etude No 2 brought memories. Thanks

Can you play Paganini Caprice No 24? Paul Luongo plays a mean version on uke!!!
 
Thanks Mickey and kia ora whetu, creative commons I've never heard of that but will check it out for sure. cheers, g2
 
Learn about Creative Commons licenses. You put your material on Youtube in order to share. Allow others to share it in a limited capacity without having to get your permission every time. Knowing I can share your video on my podcast via a creative commons license makes it more likely that I will use your video rather than use a copyrighted video and claim fair use for educational purposes.
 
Learn about Creative Commons licenses. You put your material on Youtube in order to share. Allow others to share it in a limited capacity without having to get your permission every time. Knowing I can share your video on my podcast via a creative commons license makes it more likely that I will use your video rather than use a copyrighted video and claim fair use for educational purposes.

Hi Scott, yes sharing isn't the issue for me, otherwise I wouldn't put anything on youtube <g>. It's covers, theft, etc. that I was concerned about -- and really I was just curious about the protections that others utilize or if in fact they do utilize protections. I'm not looking for a second career as a grey-haired uke performer singing original songs about life <g>, but I am a grey-haired uke player writing & singing some original songs about life, and I want to share some material with friends and family. Certainly, as someone has mentioned on the list, there have been some surprisingly popular videos that certainly, when monetized, have provided some income for the posters. Thanks for your interest, g2
 
creative commons license

The Creative Commons License is now just a checkbox on the YouTube video options page, so they've made it pretty easy. I've used it for most of my originals if the video is also 100% mine.
 
I don't have too many original songs on YT or at all, so I don't worry too much about the copyright aspect, if there was a chance I'd ever make money from them - make a record etc. - I'd look into it more, but it doesn't really worry me with the few songs I have written, they're mostly so personal that they would mean nothing for people who don't have my life, my books on the other hand? Copyrighted up the wazoo!
 
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