Copyright?

[Erfolg]

I suspect that there was an impact on some careers (probably the innocent).

 

Being generous to the contracts department, on many large contracts, contractors will not necessarily be totally compliant with the contract stipulations and submit amendments.Many things can slip through at this stage, intentional or not.

 

There is also the issue that political pressure can come into effect, I think we may be seeing that happen at present. When it happens, the contract will almost certainly be more costly and probably of poorer content. Personal observations, cause me to believe, that politics and business, are poor bedfellows.

 

I do agree, that appears to be incompetence, if the results were a total surprise, as suggested. But maybe someone got a knighthood, a companies value was increased, who knows? These things are often not what they seem, from just a little distance.

 

 

[EarlieP]

[Mike Robey]

Hi All,

 

I just posted a video on youtube which has a music sound track. The music soundtrack was constructed by me using Garageband. I have the musical ability of a stunted monkey but in Garageband you can take short music segments and join them together or layer them on top of each other. Some segments are very short (2 or 3 seconds while other can be up to a minute long). All are supplied with Garageband. In this case its one long segment that I repeated about three times so that the music was long enough for the video.

 

Google have just emailed me and said my soundtrack "might" be violating copyright because of the music soundtrack.

Does anyone know if these music segments in Garageband subject to copyright?

 

Does anyone know? Has anyone had a similar experience?

[Mike Robey]

Hi Again,

 

I think I have just found the answer. Apple say:

The GarageBand software license agreement says:

"GarageBand Software. You may use the Apple and third party audio loop content (Audio Content), contained in or otherwise included with the Apple Software, on a royalty-free basis, to create your own original music compositions or audio projects. You may broadcast and/or distribute your own music compositions or audio projects that were created using the Audio Content, however, individual audio loops may not be commercially or otherwise distributed on a standalone basis, nor may they be repackaged in whole or in part as audio samples, sound effects or music beds."

So don't worry, you can make commercial music with GarageBand, you just can't distribute the loops as loops.

 

So anyone else out there who wants to use Garageband. You can. Problem is how to make Youtube understand that. Anyway thought others might be interested.

[Alex Whittaker]

Fascinating thread. Photo and music copyright affects many more of us now that good cheap digital camera and recording gear is available, and mighty You Tube is free for all. It is indeed important own the copyright of any music you use in your homebrew YT videos, and to avoid commercial content. I do this with my own dodgy You Tube efforts. I even smuggled a similar discussion into my Weekenders column a few years ago, when I was using Magix Music Maker, a sort of PC version of Garegeband. Having now moved back to Mac from PC I used Garageband, and now Apple Logic 9. To avoid the problem of loops, I use GB or Logic as traditional multi-trackers, and just layer up my "played in" sounds. I use a cheap MIDI keyboard and electric guitars etc. This stops You Tube from bothering me, though I did inadvertently have Wishbone Ash playing on a radio in the background of a brief boating movie last year. You Tube emailed me to say that the copyright holder had noted my use and allowed me to continue to use it. I think this was because it was just a radio playing, though in effect, it was the whole sountrack. It is on my You Tube channel on www.alexwhittaker.com if you want to see it. I think any modeller who is sufficiently motivated could produce a decent copyright free soundtrack with Garageband, It really is that good. if necessary, by using just guaranteed copyright free loops, which I have done in the past too. Garageband is a truly superb piece of software that democratises the production of music, and I am all for it. It is dirt cheap too. The other point is that if someone, or some commercial concern, wishes to buy your completed YT video opus, you can sell it to them, copyright licensed!

[Erfolg]

I would guess that music and writing is an area where copyright can be contentious.

 

With writing, all written work is made from letters, on that basis it would seem difficult to enforce any copyright in that respect, just because of the 50 year rule. The same seems true with words, that is other when the first use of a word, where many come into being these days, though I again do not know of anyone trying to enforce copyright, I guess if you can demonstrate the first use of the word you could copyright it? Then again many phases are common usage. Is the first practical point at the sentence or paragraph level, or the outline of any part of the work?

 

I guess similar arguments exist with music?

[Mike Robey]

I guess my point is that, at least according to Apple I am not violating copyright but youtube (or more likely youtube's auditing software) thinks I am.

 

Alex I shudder to think of the horror I might create if i started playing with keyboards and guitars (my daughter would tell you at great length why that isn't a good idea!!). I agree Garageband is a brilliant piece of software but, for me, its brilliance lies in the fact that I can piece loops together to create music that I could not possibly create.

 

Erfolg I think you are right. It must get very subjective. My frustration is that youtube is simply wrong but impossible to contact to point out the issue. They have an online form where you can argue against getting your video withdrawn but no way of simply letting them know they are getting the wrong end of the stick.

 

I am one of the few people I know who has always bought the genuine article so to speak but this kind of automated overkill really makes me rethink my position in that regard.