User Created Content

YouTube.com has been a playground for user created videos since 2005. During the last four years YouTube has gone through many changes. The most impactful of these changes are the ones related to YouTube's partnerships with other companies. The most notable of these companies is Warner Music Group. YouTube used to have an agreement with Warner Music Group that allowed WMG to make money whenever content was discovered being used in videos on YouTube. YouTube paid for use of the copyrighted material. However, negotiations of the contract renewal failed and YouTube and WMG are no longer working together. WMG now uses YouTube's ContentID system to remove all videos that contain any copyrighted material, regardless of whether it falls under fair use. YouTube offers a service in which users can dispute whether their video falls under fair use or not. I myself have looked into the service, and I must personally say, trying to understand the fair use law is a rather difficult process without a consultant whom is familiar with copyright and fair use laws, i.e. a lawyer.

The ContentID system works so well it sometimes even prevents users from sharing accapella and cover versions of songs owned by WMG (von Lohman, Fred). I have a video of behind the scenes footage of my friends filming one of their original online shorts. In the finalized version I created for YouTube there are clips from some musicians under a WMG record label. My video was immediately pulled after being uploaded. The video I created in no way shape or form resembled any video made by any of the musicians I used. Another video I uploaded contained footage from the worldwide broadcast of the Live Earth concert. The broadcast was free and streamed live over the internet and on local television. The footage was of Missy Higgins's song "Steer." WMG owns the rights to video footage of Missy's performance of "Steer" from Live Earth and I was not able to upload the video of that song. However, video of the other eight songs she performed was able to be uploaded, as WMG did not own the copyright to video of those performances.