Spiral Knights - A Copyright Claim on my Obsolete SK Video -- You Gotta be Kidding me!

A Copyright Claim on my Obsolete SK Video -- You Gotta be Kidding me!

14 replies [Last post]

Thu, 04/14/2016 - 08:30

Euclidean-Space

So here is the claim I received: http://imgur.com/aNQKFpZ

Hi Daniel Han (aka Eternal Torture),

A copyright owner using Content ID claimed some material in your video.

This is just a heads up
Don’t worry. You’re not in trouble and your account standing is not affected by this.

There are either ads running on your video, with the revenue going to the copyright owner, or the copyright owner is receiving stats about your video’s views.

Video title: Spiral Knights: All guns demostration (shooting+charging)
Copyrighted song: The Gears Keep Turning
Claimed by: TuneCore

Besides me in high school with lacking spelling skills; misspelling the word 'demonstration', it has come to my realisation that after some searches, Harry Mack was the creator of this BGM.
The sound track can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3uPXkdrCDw

The time range quoted was the following:
The Gears Keep Turning - Harry Mack
Sound recording
7:43 - 8:16

The video is basically an obsolete demonstration of 'all guns', back then when I was a hardcore P2W kid. As a side note... those old icons bring back some memories.

However, I believe my content falls under fair use:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
5. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.[3]
(Source: Wikipedia)

I do want any advertisement content on my (dead) channel, however I do mind my contend being monetised... though it won't get any traffic anyway.

But the real question I have here is:
1. Would all SK game play videos with the game's original music now be subjected to content ID claims?
2. It is really unfair to make money off of someone else's content that one has put time and effort into. Nintendo tried to pull this card on their fans, the backlash they got was deserved and also expected. Is this an isolated incident? Does anyone else here somehow have a video or two of SK gameplay being content ID claimed by this certain organisation?

This is not a nice move to be honest. The BGM is just a tiny part of this game, is the creator still affiliated with OOO/Grey Havens? If not, I would call this an extremely horrible move, and I will possibly delete the video or mute the audio, not that there exist any traffic anyway, 3734 views, junk FPS recorded on my old laptop, I would dislike it too.

If I am being paranoid and the organisation is still affiliated with the game, and they ID Claimed my video to barely see the stats, then we have extremely good news: THEY MIGHT BE PLANNING ON SOMETHING!!!!!1111!! :D I honestly hope I'm being paranoid, I would love to see actual new content, missions and what not. Reskins of reskins, recolourisations of reskins, urgh! Not that I am against a business making money, but I guess most people want to see shiny new things.

Anyway, thought people might be interested or something -- let's see.

Thu, 04/14/2016 - 09:36

Bopp

I am not a lawyer

Fair use is complicated. There are a lot of subtleties to those guidelines that you quoted from Wikipedia. You probably already realize this, but you should not rely on Wikipedia or the Spiral Knights forums for legal advice. Either acquiesce or get a lawyer.

1. Would all SK game play videos with the game's original music now be subjected to content ID claims?...Is this an isolated incident? Does anyone else here somehow have a video or two of SK gameplay being content ID claimed by this certain organisation?

If TuneCore holds the copyrights, then they can probably scan pretty easily for Spiral Knights videos with music and issue takedown requests.

2. It is really unfair to make money off of someone else's content that one has put time and effort into.

In this case, either you (if you sell ads) or YouTube is making money off TuneCore's content. So, from their perspective, your/YouTube's behavior is unfair.

Nintendo tried to pull this card on their fans, the backlash they got was deserved and also expected.

I agree that aggressive copyright enforcement often prompts backlashes from consumers. Good luck.

Thu, 04/14/2016 - 09:39

Bonjourhippo

If some of SK's IP were

If some of SK's IP were acquired by some external company, they're legally allowed to make a claim; it's clearly fair use but it's also clearly not directly related to SK. It might even have been automated.
tl;dr welcome to youtube.

Thu, 04/14/2016 - 09:58

Euclidean-Space

If some of SK's IP were acquired by some external company, they're legally allowed to make a claim
If it falls under fair use, the claim would be in itself illegal right? I don't mind, not going to bother with it.

Thu, 04/14/2016 - 10:07

Euclidean-Space

There are a lot of subtleties to those guidelines that you quoted from Wikipedia. You probably already realize this, but you should not rely on Wikipedia or the Spiral Knights forums for legal advice.
I understand fair use policies, my video does fall under it. Wikipedia is a bad source but it's also an easy source and quotes I used aren't affiliated with any external editors and what not, it provides a basic understanding and that's what I wanted. My university work demands tons of reports... any whoever uses Wikipedia is likely to get laughed off. I only use it to source gif animations of maths related things.

In this case, either you (if you sell ads) or YouTube is making money off TuneCore's content. So, from their perspective, your/YouTube's behavior is unfair.
That's because they don't respect fair use, simple as that. I follow many large critique/comedy (i.e. Adoseofbuckley) who are constantly subjected to these bogus claims. They usually spend hours for one video, and someone else makes money off of their work? I think the monetisation should be a split if these people have to be so greedy, creator takes maybe at least 4/5 and the rest goes to the owner putting through the claim.

I agree that aggressive copyright enforcement
Ehhh, that's not really copyright enforcement, that's greed. I am totally fine with people making money off my videos where I had copyright music material in the background playing. I am fine with people who DMCA entire pirated CDs and etc. But videos of gameplay does not harm the developers.

Let alone the claim I got was for music -.- Just amazing. Someone got a claim because they included stock audio of raindrops and it was used in a song, not saying I am in the same situation, but this entire system is really bizarre.

Thu, 04/14/2016 - 10:46

Bopp

not clear to me

Please keep in mind that I am not expressing an opinion about how the law should be. I'm just trying to understand how the law is. Also I think that the DMCA has been widely abused. However...

I understand fair use policies, my video does fall under it...That's because they don't respect fair use, simple as that.

Your argument boils down to "it's fair use". And Bonjourhippo agrees with you. But it's not clear to me that your use is fair use.

For example, when a character on a TV sitcom sings a famous song, they often stop 3/4 of the way through the verse. Why? My understanding is that a whole verse is hard to defend as fair use, while part of a verse is easier to defend. This is point #3 in your original post.

To put it another way, is the Wakon Music soundtrack you linked also fair use? I don't see how. It's a complete reproduction of a copyrighted work. Because that reproduction is available, I have no incentive to buy that copyrighted work. So the existence of that unauthorized reproduction is probably harming the copyright owner. Do you agree?

Where is the line between your unauthorized use of the music and Wakon Music's unauthorized use? I don't know, because I'm not a lawyer.

Thu, 04/14/2016 - 11:38

Fangel

Well hey

At least you aren't having videos you put heart and soul into taken down by WMG after you went out and bought their music and then used it in a video.

This happened a lot back in like, 2008 or 2009 or so? I remember being very mad at WMG back then. Now a days they just monetize your videos and people can still enjoy your content.

But, in all honesty, if you are doing gameplay videos, it isn't uncommon for copyright to be activated by YouTube's system. The system is pretty bad and is more of a "fear based" setup than a motivator to make you create original content.

My thoughts are that if your video is still public on YouTube, then there's nothing to be worried about. Just move on, and try your hand at other types of creation.

Thu, 04/14/2016 - 11:44

Flowchart

YouTube's dumb like that, since they don't want to moderate videos themselves they let copyright holders do it, which means they can take down whatever and you have to prove fair use to get it reinstated.

So if you think it's OK then just dispute it.

Thu, 04/14/2016 - 12:11

Bonjourhippo

Myeah same story here, I

Myeah same story here, I don't think the law is particularly appropriate when it comes to copyrights; the main problem here is that you're receiving the "sentence" (video taken down or whatever) before proved guilty, but again you'll find Youtube's ToS are rock solid when it comes to justifying that, it's just one downside of the platform. Essentially within the terms of Youtube this is how things work, legally, somehow.

Thu, 04/14/2016 - 20:00

Petater

For today's episode

Euclidean-Space discovers why the internet hates Youtube's Content ID system.

Fri, 04/15/2016 - 04:53

#10

Hexzyle

I've been watching GradeAUnderA's videos, and even though it's a comedy channel, he does actually go into the nitty gritty and talk about YouTube copyright laws (while poking fun at them, mind you)

So yes, YouTube copyright can be stupid at times.

Fri, 04/15/2016 - 07:49

#11

Bonjourhippo

There's a lot of videos on

There's a lot of videos on Youtube about the copyright ID system; general consensus is it's bad, but still better than Facebook for instance not making any checks (freebooting is a fun subject to look into).

Sun, 04/17/2016 - 15:08

#12

Xaurian

I'm sorry, I have to.

#WheresTheFairUse

Mon, 04/18/2016 - 07:37

#13

Cronus

Game Master

It sounds like you had

It sounds like you had copyrighted music on in the background - And yes, game music is copyrighted. It's possible that our ownership change created an issue with the claim system. I'll look into changing that back since we like to encourage people to post Spiral Knights videos as much as possible (provided they aren't posting content that violates the TOS).

With that being said, YouTube has recommended that if you have a channel with content from games (other than Spiral Knights), you may want to mute in game music for videos. Otherwise the owners of the music's copyright could legally submit a copyright claim for the revenue.

Mon, 04/18/2016 - 09:42

#14

Fehzor

If you mute your in game music I'm going to unsubscribe and dislike ok yea I can do that ok so watch out

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A Copyright Claim on my Obsolete SK Video -- You Gotta be Kidding me!