So finally I have something to blog about on my vanity record label website. A coupla years back, I recorded a cover of She Sells Sanctuary by The Cult in which I play all the instruments but, those of you who have a low tolerance for crappy voices will be glad to hear, do not sing. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8ZjJzB33ZQ Some months back, YouTube allowed me to monetize this cover with the approval of the writers (Thanks guys!). In the three or four months since monetization, I have made a whopping 45 cents off the video. Hurray! I'm a professional musician! Sort of!
All good, right? Wrong. About 10 days ago, I got a notice from YouTube saying that monetization had been disabled since there was a copyright notice for content match filed by Routenote, an online music distributor, which claimed the sound recording was owned by them. Umm, not so much. I make no claim to have written the song, although the authors were kind enough to let me use it on YouTube and even make that massive 45 cents (and counting) from it. The performance and sound recording thereof, however, are totally and utterly and completely me. There is absolutely nothing of the original song or any other song in the video. All me. So WTF???? In the past, a few people have asked permission to use my covers for various purposes none of which made them any money, so like sure, why not, give me credit and let's all have a bit of fun with this music and YouTube thing. Anyway, here's the notice I received from YouTube:
Hi CrummyMusician,
Due to a copyright claim, you are no longer monetizing the following YouTube video. It is still playable on YouTube, but the copyright owner could choose to show ads on it.
Video title: The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary full instrumental cover
Copyrighted song: She Sell's Sanctuary
Claimed by: routenote
Why this can happen
I dug around a bit, and discovered that some guys I have never heard of in London, UK, had used my instrumental cover, sung vocals on top of it, represented it as entirely their own performance, and PUT IT UP FOR SALE on Itunes, Amazon, etc, etc. Bastards. The offending perps are a "band" (I use the term loosely, since apparently they DON'T play at least some of their own music, although they claim to) called "Play Me" which has an album called 80's Rock Legends out, on which there was a track called She Sell's (sic.) Sanctuary. And, as you may have guessed by now, in addition to having problems with grammar and spelling, these guys had outright stolen my performance and represented it as their own in an album released September 18, 2013, just over two years after I posted my cover to YouTube. I won't put the link to them here, since I don't want to drive traffic to them, but Google will show you that these guys are all over the web with this theft.
Anyway, this really pissed me off. They didn't ask, they claimed it as their own performance, and they were making money off it. I posted some nasty comments on their offending YouTube video and their twitter feed. No reply. Then just for fun, I decided to test a copyright grey area. What rights, exactly, do I have to a performance of a cover that I have been granted permission to use on one platform (YouTube) for one purpose (shared monetization)? And what can I do to get the plagiarized song off the internet?
All good, right? Wrong. About 10 days ago, I got a notice from YouTube saying that monetization had been disabled since there was a copyright notice for content match filed by Routenote, an online music distributor, which claimed the sound recording was owned by them. Umm, not so much. I make no claim to have written the song, although the authors were kind enough to let me use it on YouTube and even make that massive 45 cents (and counting) from it. The performance and sound recording thereof, however, are totally and utterly and completely me. There is absolutely nothing of the original song or any other song in the video. All me. So WTF???? In the past, a few people have asked permission to use my covers for various purposes none of which made them any money, so like sure, why not, give me credit and let's all have a bit of fun with this music and YouTube thing. Anyway, here's the notice I received from YouTube:
Hi CrummyMusician,
Due to a copyright claim, you are no longer monetizing the following YouTube video. It is still playable on YouTube, but the copyright owner could choose to show ads on it.
Video title: The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary full instrumental cover
Copyrighted song: She Sell's Sanctuary
Claimed by: routenote
Why this can happen
- Your video might contain copyrighted content.
- A copyright claim on a video can prevent you from monetizing it.
I dug around a bit, and discovered that some guys I have never heard of in London, UK, had used my instrumental cover, sung vocals on top of it, represented it as entirely their own performance, and PUT IT UP FOR SALE on Itunes, Amazon, etc, etc. Bastards. The offending perps are a "band" (I use the term loosely, since apparently they DON'T play at least some of their own music, although they claim to) called "Play Me" which has an album called 80's Rock Legends out, on which there was a track called She Sell's (sic.) Sanctuary. And, as you may have guessed by now, in addition to having problems with grammar and spelling, these guys had outright stolen my performance and represented it as their own in an album released September 18, 2013, just over two years after I posted my cover to YouTube. I won't put the link to them here, since I don't want to drive traffic to them, but Google will show you that these guys are all over the web with this theft.
Anyway, this really pissed me off. They didn't ask, they claimed it as their own performance, and they were making money off it. I posted some nasty comments on their offending YouTube video and their twitter feed. No reply. Then just for fun, I decided to test a copyright grey area. What rights, exactly, do I have to a performance of a cover that I have been granted permission to use on one platform (YouTube) for one purpose (shared monetization)? And what can I do to get the plagiarized song off the internet?
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