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YouTube Identifies Birdsong As Copyrighted Music

New submitter eeplox writes "I make nature videos for my YouTube channel, generally in remote wilderness away from any possible source of music. And I purposely avoid using a soundtrack in my videos because of all the horror stories I hear about Rumblefish filing claims against public domain music. But when uploading my latest video, YouTube informed me that I was using Rumblefish's copyrighted content, and so ads would be placed on my video, with the proceeds going to said company. This baffled me. I disputed their claim with YouTube's system — and Rumblefish refuted my dispute, and asserted that: 'All content owners have reviewed your video and confirmed their claims to some or all of its content: Entity: rumblefish; Content Type: Musical Composition.' So I asked some questions, and it appears that the birds singing in the background of my video are Rumblefish's exclusive intellectual property."

22 of 730 comments (clear)

  1. Prior Art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dear Rumblefish,
          I see that you are using my music without proper authorization.
    -- God
    p.s. I could use ad's, hmmmm... Naa, Smite works just as well...

    1. Re:Prior Art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Dear Rumblefish,
              Did you see the Alfred Hitchcock movie starring us? If not, perhaps you should.
      Sincerely,
      The Birds

  2. Small Claims DDOS by silentbozo · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Go to the woods, record birdsong.
    2. Make a bunch of videos and post to YouTube
    3. Wait for takedown
    4. Sue Rumblefish in small claims court for the ad revenue they got from Google.
    5. Profit!!!!

    1. Re:Small Claims DDOS by EdIII · · Score: 4, Funny

      You can't use self-shots taken by a monkey. They all have monkey butts and penises in them. Or slow mo shots of another monkey throwing poo.

      It would never pass YouTube's decency standards.

  3. You know... by Stanislav_J · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've always said copyright is for the birds... (Well, someone had to say it!)

    --
    "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
  4. Couldn't have been by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 4, Funny

    A mockingbird, could it?

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
  5. Yeesh by sixtyeight · · Score: 5, Funny

    YouTube: Blurring the line between the RIAA and Monsanto.

    --
    The Wolfpack Project: BitCoin + Crowdfunding = Political Accountability
  6. It's a good thing nobody farted in the background. by mykepredko · · Score: 4, Funny

    Rumblefish owns that as well.

    And you know you're going to have to pay through the nose on that one!

    myke

  7. Re:Lies by pruss · · Score: 5, Funny

    It depends how you take the quantifiers. :-) In first-order logic, "all As are Bs" is automatically true if there are no As. In the case at hand, there are no content owners, because nobody owns the bird songs (not even the birds). So, all content owners have reviewed the video and confirmed their claims. Likewise, all content owners have seven legs.

  8. Now all we need... by ChipMonk · · Score: 4, Funny

    is a Metallica song with birds in the background.

    Lars, meet Rumblefish. Rumblefish, Lars.

    Who's got the popcorn for this show?

  9. Re:Lies by Kenja · · Score: 4, Funny

    Clearly you've never heard Bjork sing.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  10. ..and is the bird song public domain? by formfeed · · Score: 5, Funny

    Okay, sorry... But someone has to ask this...

    Where did the clip of the birdsong come from? Is this something the OP recorded himself? Or did he use an audio clip from some other source?

    And if the OP recorded himself, did he make sure the birds were indeed singing a song that is in the public domain?

    While birds aren't people and can't own a copyright, a flock of birds is more like a corporation and therefor a person.

  11. Talking by QuasiRob · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'll be scared to talk on a video now, I might find I'm copyrighted by someone else.

    --
    If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done?
  12. Re:Lies by eriklou · · Score: 5, Funny

    Chewbacca's lawyers called, they want his defense back.

  13. Re:Slander of title by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yet bird songs might copy each other's tunes. So his bird song might sound the same as one they recorded. This is because birds have no copyright and reproduce other bird's songs as their own. They then use this to attract a mate and pass the other bird's intellectual property to their kids. Not only do they steal other birds song, but they show that if copying songs is legal, it makes all the birds lazy and not want to come up with new songs. This is why pirates always carried parrots on their ships. The parrot is the most efficient bird at stealing songs back when we didn't have computers and the Internet.

  14. Re:ridiculous by rrohbeck · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sue the birds for using copyrighted content all the time.
    Damn pirates.

  15. Re:Lies by mooingyak · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have 5 arms

    Now THAT'S a bold-faced lie.

    --
    William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
  16. Re:Profit & Lies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hey there, it's Paul Anthony....the guy you want to send creepy letters consisting of cut up letters from magazines...I know, you were probably just kidding. I'm the Founder and CEO of Rumblefish and saw this thread and it seems to be getting rather heated up so I thought I'd chime in, answer whatever questions I can and make myself available for a little while (have to eat in a bit) if people have questions....which it seems like they very much do.

    I'm not sure where to start b/c so much has been said but eeplox, if we have indeed mistakenly been sent a claim by YouTube's Content ID system and are inaccurately claiming a video...we'll release it. Our mission is to license music rightfully in order to compensate recording artists for their work. Claiming anything that other people / companies / organizations own is not what we're about. Rumblefish is an independent music company...not a large media conglomerate. We aim to do right by creators of all kinds.

  17. Re:Attorneys by Merls+the+Sneaky · · Score: 5, Funny

    False DMCA claims are now called "Rumblefish". EG: "My youtube video just got rumblefished. "

  18. Re:Profit & Lies by Mistlefoot · · Score: 4, Funny

    No. If he was the real Paul Anthony he'd be suing the bird for performing the Rumblefish owned song in front of an audience.

  19. Re:Profit & Lies by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 1, Funny
    Choke on your own tongue you greedy lying ignorant proprietarian piece of crap.

    I will never EVER give you a dime. For anything. You just bought yourself a whole world of hate, and you deserve it you ignorant whore.

    Oh, and by the way - give Coppola back his Rumblefish - he's put it to better use than you ever will.

    dungbeetle.

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  20. Re:Bird Chirping --- property of God by ReverendLoki · · Score: 3, Funny

    In that case, I imagine a lot of persons and other entities that have suffered losses due to "Acts of God" will be wanting to have a word with Rumblefish and whatever monies they have managed to accumulate.

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