Two of my VFLive videos got "content id" on Youtube. What should I do?

Do I need to take them down? It says the music is 'matched third party content", but Sega themselves told me this when I was starting out:

"I apologize for the delay as our policy in matters like this for the Americas and Europe has been under extended reconsideration. To be clear, we never give explicit permission to use our intellectual property. We reserve the right to take necessary actions when our properties are used inappropriately, maligned or distributed for profit.

However, we will typically will not take action on YouTube videos or similar content in these regions. Monatization of Youtube videos is not something we consider, but we will demand the removal of any leaked footage as well as content that uses our properties in a malicious or inappropriate way.

We will also typically not take action against works for personal use, school projects, portfolios, etc, as long as the work is not distributed for profit and our ownership of the copyright is acknowledged.

Additionally, if you live in these territories and you have a YouTube video that was removed, please get in touch with us at communityteam@sega.com so that we can look into it for you.

Best Regards,
Jeff C. Hawkins
SEGA of America Customer Service
Supervisor"

That's the actual email they sent me a couple years ago. I'm glad I kept it. Also the company that claimed it wasn't Sega, but some place I never heard of called elicense.

So what should I do?

 

Generally you don't need to take vids down unless specifically told to, also I think youtube would do it for you.

What the post you got probably means is that youtube has recognized that the music is third party and they are going to ask that party whether they would like the vid to be removed. Most likely scenario is that that party doesn't care and the video can continue staying up. I recommend you don't take action unless you get specific order to do something. In any case its going to take time.

 

The thing is, it wasn't Sega who claimed it, but elicense, whoever that is. Also, the song titles of the background music they claim I can't use are wrong. They are technically accurate, but for example it says one of the tracks is called "SEGA-AKIRA (VF5FS)" but the actual name of the song is "Statues". It then says "sound recording administered by: elicense" meaning elicense is claiming ownership of the song. I've never heard of elincense before, but further research shows they've claimed a number of other people's Youtube videos too, all of which have Sega music. This leads me to wonder if they're a company hired by Sega and it's a legitimate copyright claim, or if it's a false claim and I should dispute it based on the above email from Sega.

 

Ok this was different from what I thought.

But
"YouTube only grants Content ID to copyright owners who meet specific criteria. To be approved, they must own exclusive rights to a substantial body of original material that is frequently uploaded by the YouTube user community."

So they do have copyright cause otherwise they wouldnt get to use content ID.
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797370?hl=en-GB

You could I guess remove the audio or something.. I dont know what videos are being discussed here.

 

It's these two:

http://youtu.be/qKnQmzOYzPI

http://youtu.be/CrG4vZK6xaE

But I also know for a fact that anyone and their Grandmother can claim whatever they want, no questions asked. That's why so many Youtubers have been copyright flagged for stuff they either created themselves, or is in the public domain. If it is legitimate, then why do they only have an issue with specific parts of the audio as opposed to the entire thing?

Shouldn't what Sega told me hold some weight?

 

Well you can always opt to not do anything. If they are legit enough to convince youtube of their claim so that youtube takes it down, then its real enough. Your youtube account only gets in trouble if there are multiple infractions, and we dont know yet for sure are these actually infractions.

I was just saying that content ID is a service meant for copyright owners or their representatives. I have no experience of it myself.

I do agree that the claim just for these pieces of music sounds really weird..

ps. nice vids btw

 

So should I dispute it?

 

So did the videos that Elicense claimed all have monetization (ads enabled) in common? I wouldn't know cause I have adblock block that stuff and dont monetize my own videos.

 

I don't know if it would need to be, or solve the issue,
but perhaps ponder having music turned off as a sort of solution?
Unless they'd claim rights and cry copyright and woes for "blocked hit sound #3" aswell.

I say this being quite used to not have the music on in VF for years,
but if it is applicable in this case, i cannot say.

Bah for the circus of copyright claims, and people not having time to consider wether in fact certain videos could be see more as actual free advertisment for their product,
rather then something taking anything away from the productions or content.

 

I don't monetize any of my videos.

They did give me the option to remove the music. I'll probably do that.

How much weight would the email from Sega in my original post hold If I used it to argue fair use? Considering I don't do anything they say they'd take action against and I ALWAYS go out of my way to acknowledge Sega as the owner of VF in the description of EVERY VF video I post?

 

Now all of a sudden a lot more of my videos got claimed by elicense for the same thing. 15 in total.

 

Seems like Sega of Japan has finally taken precaution to prevent monetizing any of its content over YouTube via the "elicense" label. Many other companies have done the same thing but with different Content ID labels.

As long as you don't plan on monetizing any of SoJ's stuff in the future over YouTube, then you have nothing to worry about.

Kruza

 

But none of them are monetized.

 

Then you're in the clear.

The Content ID label doesn't mean you're automatically penalized with a strike, lose the video or anything of that sort. It's just an indication that some music content in your YouTube videos are officially being added to the database of elicense, which is now likely the assigned and authorized copyright location of SoJ's material.

You still have the option to dispute an elicense YouTube claim if you wish to do so. But my assertion of this matter is that SoJ likely won't respond to your claim and actually let it go... just as long as they know that you're not looking to monetize it.

Kruza

 

Somehow the claims just went away. I don't know how it happened, but I'm not complaining.