My First YouTube Content Ownership Dispute
In the year after my divorce, as I was trying to figure out what to do next, I uploaded a handful of videos to YouTube. Some are of me just being goofy and singing, a couple are of me just talking to the camera about what I was going through and one was a documentary about Geoff Smith called Making Gravity with Geoff Smith.
Some of the videos contain songs and YouTube associates the songs with copyright holders and provides links to buy mp3s of the original recordings. To me that seems like an ideal use of technology. I got to be goofy and sing a couple songs that provided sales opportunities for the copyright holders, and no one would opt for my silly versions over the originals. Pretty cool.
I recorded one video on a Sunday afternoon. Typical for me, on a Sunday afternoon, Miles Davis was playing quietly in the background. It didn’t cross my mind that the song was even in the video because I’m talking the whole time. YouTube’s tech detected the song, but didn’t associate it with the title and didn’t provide links to buy the MP3. They contacted me to let me know they couldn’t monetize it unless I could prove I had the right to use the song. That makes sense. It’s a video YouTube could remove completely and I wouldn’t care.
This morning I got this notice about the Making Gravity documentary:
Dear 00neal,
Your video, Making Gravity with Geoff Smith, may have content that is owned or licensed by IODA.
No action is required on your part; however, if you are interested in learning how this affects your video, please visit the Content ID Matches section of your account for more information.
Sincerely,
- The YouTube Team
I clicked the link to dispute the question about my right to use the song. I produced the video with the songwriter and copyright owner, Geoff Smith. It’s a documentary created to promote Geoff’s music. The dispute process was smooth and I expect a positive resolution.
It makes sense to me that Google’s algorithm would flag the content. Geoff uses the IODA (Independent Online Distribution Alliance) to distribute and protect his music. They provide independent artists with the same type of protection that major labels provide to their artists. Neither IODA or YouTube would know that Geoff worked with me to produce this documentary about Geoff producing his song That’s Gravity. Ideally, YouTube will check it out, and they’ll add those groovy links so people can buy copies of the MP3. It really is a great song.
It is a good thing that we’re upset by SOPA, PIPA, and stories about videos wrongly taken down from YouTube. In my experience, YouTube is doing a pretty impressive job balancing the rights of copyright holders with the desires of users, and they’re doing it without the interference of Congress.
Get a copy of That’s Gravity from Amazon for $0.99!
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Sting 25 iPad App
Yesterday Sting announced an iPad App called Sting 25. It’s free to download, and although flawed (like any proper human endeavor), it is a brilliant piece of marketing. I’ll get to the App in a bit, but first … why I care …
I grew up in that southern conservative Christian tradition that taught that non-Christian music was all evil. My grandparents, who raised me, didn’t believe or teach me that. It was the churches they took me to. My grandparents owned rental property. One time a renter moved out and left a cable box behind. I got it and hooked it up in my bedroom. My grandparents had the local channels. That cable box gave me ALL the channels.
I believe in yin and yang. I believe we are two sided coins. You can’t experience what you like about me without experiencing what you dislike about me. As good Christian boy, I spent the most time watching Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker produced content. I loved them so much that I built an exact replica of their PTL set out of Lego. I even painted it to match what I saw on TV, and I sewed dresses for the girl lego singers. Drop the good Christian from the boy, and I gotta tell ya, I was very happy to get Cinemax on that cable box! Fridays after Dark I got naked women in my bedroom. My grandparents not know what they were missing!
Cinemax didn’t only bring naked women on Friday nights. It brought me the very first documentary I remember watching, Bring on the Night (1985). Sting was a successful artist with the Police, but he was driven to stretch himself musically beyond his pop potential. In the documentary as Sting prepared for his first solo show, he pulled together great jazz players to create a whole new musical sound. Even though I didn’t *listen* to secular music, I watched it on TV, especially on MTV. I watched this documentary over and over again and fell in love with the concept of “Behind-the-Scenes.” I also fell in love with the sound of the music Sting and his jazz players were creating.
The Sting iPad App is a look behind-the-scenes of Sting’s solo career. It’s looks good on iPad. It has concert footage, interview clips, music video clips and audio clips. There are loads of photos accompanied by quotes and insights into how Sting’s unique musical style has unfolded over the last 25 years or so. I love Miles Davis and it’s cool listening to audio clips talking about Miles Davis. Even thought Miles has been gone for years, Sting still has his phone number stored on his phone.
Sting 25 opens like a PBS show without the voice over. The App is unobtrusively underwritten by sponsors. It’s a circular viewing experience. You can start anywhere, but the official starting point is footage from a concert celebrating Sting’s 60th birthday. That part is worth the download. It features performances by Bruce Springstein, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder.
Media content seems to be streaming from the cloud rather than stored in the App, and I had to wait on some buffering during video playback. Each little part seems to be a different media file downloaded on demand. It’s a constant endeavor of tapping to move to the next bit and then tapping to play that bit. Some video clips are repeated in different sections and most are cut in the wrong emotional place. Lots of the clips were just too short and ended in the middle of whatever moment was being captured by the filmakers.
I wish the editing was better and I wish the App had a “play all” option that would show all the content as one piece rather than as an endless bunch of fragmented pieces. It’s kind of like a prix fixe dinner if a server brought out a course and picked up the plate as soon as you took a bite. The overall experience is pretty much like extra features on a DVD, without the DVD.
Sting 25 succeeds in providing a behind-the-scenes look into the life and music of Sting. The live performances with Bruce Springstein, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder are something special. Music videos started as marketing material to get fans to buy music. Music Apps like Sting 25 will do the same thing.
It worked for me. I bought some Sting songs, which you can do directly from the App. 
