GJ YouTube, a Dutch musician received copyright strikes from YouTube for infringing his own song

[Master Disaster]

Just when you think you've seen everything from YouTube they go and top it. Dutch musician Paul David was left astounded as Google decided to strike one of his uploads for copyright infringement but when he listened to the song he was supposed to be copying it turned out that someone had ripped his song off, added guitar and vocals and reuploaded it on YouTube yet he was the one who received the strike.

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Paul Davids thought he had seen it all when it came to YouTube's copyright protection system.

 

The Dutch YouTuber's most popular videos include him playing famous guitar riffs, comparing different instruments and teaching various skills and techniques.

 

"Just like probably all the music YouTubers out there," he explained in a video to his 625,000 subscribers, "once in a while I get an email stating I'm infringing on someone's copyrighted material."

 

Paul had been contacted by YouTube to advise him that one of his videos had been flagged for copyright infringement, but in his own words, "this was a little different".

 

The copyright he had apparently infringed upon was his own.

 

"It said what song I was infringing on," Paul explained. "What I found was quite shocking.

 

"Someone took my track, added vocals and guitar to make their own track, and uploaded it to YouTube, but I got the copyright infringement notice!"

 

He had been accused of plagiarising his own music - and worse, all the money that video was earning would now be directed towards the person who copied his content.

After some back and forth with the guy an agreement was eventually reached between the pair

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Despite being faced with a claim of copyright infringement and demonetisation, Paul remained calm.

 

"I looked up the guy on Facebook," he said. "I wrote him a message.

 

"I asked: 'Are you aware that you used one of my tracks to publish as your own track? Let me know'.

 

"A few hours later I got a response. 'Hey, I don't know', he said. 'I did download a couple of guitar licks somewhere off YouTube. Would you consider letting me still use this?'

 

"I wrote him back saying, 'You can't just rip a track off YouTube and then claim it is your own. Did you know I got a copyright notice from YouTube about that track? Claiming that I was infringing on your track?'

 

"That's quite odd, since I wrote and recorded it."

 

In the end, Paul decided to do the nicest thing he could think of - he let the copycat keep using his song.

 

"It's not like he will make tons of money with it," Paul said. "It's OK. It probably happens all the time."

This isn't the first time YouTube have had these kinds of problems though.

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This is not the first time there has been such an issue with YouTube's copyright systems.

 

In 2015, Mitch Martinez had monetisation removed from a video after Sony filed a copyright claim against the video he licensed them.

 

And in 2010, pop artist Justin Bieber was caught up in a row with the platform when they temporarily would not allow him to upload his new song - because someone else had uploaded it first.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44726296

 

That's pretty funny but I'd imagine also pretty scarey if you're a musician uploading to YouTube for monetisation. Robots be dumb.

[Volbet]

It makes sense, seeing how YouTube's copyright system is pretty much first come, first served. 

As long as a song, sound or snippet isn't already in the YouTube bot, then you can claim it as your own. 

It's also not uncommon for DMCA bureaus to claim copyright-free material as their own. 

[Lurick]

What do you expect when you have the major copyright entities demanding everyone online wave some magic wand and make all infringement disappear =/

[JoaoPRSousa]

In the end, Paul decided to do the nicest thing he could think of - he let the copycat keep using his song.

 

The other dude most likely lied to him and he doesn't mind. Get rekt copycat.

 

But, YouTube, get your shit together.

[Teddy07]

Is this really tech news? It is common knowledge that youtube copyright system is screwed. 

[mynameisjuan]

1 minute ago, JoaoPRSousa said:

But, YouTube, get your shit together.

How the fuck is this youtubes fault?

 

Someone got rights first. How are they supposed to know whose the original creator?

[TetraSky]

GJ Youtube. If a song has been up for months prior(years in his case), that's probably the one that came out first, sounds like common sense to me. How could that not be programmed in their automatic flagging system...
Thankfully he got that sorted out within hours, unlike the days/weeks some people can be made to wait.

[Misanthrope]

24 minutes ago, Volbet said:

It makes sense, seeing how YouTube's copyright system is pretty much first come, first served. 

As long as a song, sound or snippet isn't already in the YouTube bot, then you can claim it as your own. 

It's also not uncommon for DMCA bureaus to claim copyright-free material as their own. 

Yes that is what happens, no it doesn't makes sense that Youtube insists on using an easily exploitable, all-automatic, 0 human review system.

 

I understand there's a lot of material being uploaded but monetization should depend of at least a good faith, conscious attempt at claiming rights and disclosing them not just "I clicked the upload button" as a basis for potentially launching legal conflicts where money changes hands.

[Master Disaster]

28 minutes ago, Volbet said:

It makes sense, seeing how YouTube's copyright system is pretty much first come, first served. 

As long as a song, sound or snippet isn't already in the YouTube bot, then you can claim it as your own. 

It's also not uncommon for DMCA bureaus to claim copyright-free material as their own. 

 

5 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

How the fuck is this youtubes fault?

 

Someone got rights first. How are they supposed to know whose the original creator?

Guys, the Dutch musician had the song up on YouTube for years before the other guy stole it, edited it and then reuploaded it.

[Volbet]

14 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Guys, the Dutch musician had the song up on YouTube for years before the other guy stole it, edited it and then reuploaded it.

Just becuase he uploaded his song first it doesn't mean his song was registered with YouTube's copyright system. 

You don't get an automatic copyright to everything you upload to YouTube (not in the YouTube system, anyway). 

Chances are that the reuploader is either with a management that registered a copyright for him or he did it himself. 

[givingtnt]

@CPotteris this you ?