DMCA is punishing me for using my own material
Alright, so I run a Web site named HackCollege. It’s a blog for college students. We’ve also produced video segments in the past.
While we could take the “We’re poor college students” approach to music and images, we have always tried to take the high road and never use copyrighted materials in our videos. Several of our videos have recently been invited to participate in the YouTube rev-sharing program.
There are some songs that a friend made for us as a favor. There was no record of the transaction other than a simple verbal conversation. He just had the tracks laying around and was just gave them to us. But because we don’t have a paper-trail tying the song rights to us, YouTube is punishing us. They invited and then subsequently denied us to the rev-sharing program. For using music, we are automatically viewed as potential criminals until we prove ourselves innocent (which I’m not sure quite how to do). The inadequate automation is hurting both YouTube and us (neither of us are making money on the video).
The video in question is the “How to Build a Homemade A/C.”
The DMCA is not to blame for this. In fact, the DMCA should prevent this problem. It’s the music labels who are doing this: they’ve forced YouTube into a preemptive strategy for resolving music conflicts in exchange for more favorable music licensing terms / no lawsuits.
mikehudack is right on this one. I’m not familiar with YouTube’s policy on proving/refuting infringement, but legally there are a 2 basic ways to go about this. First, it sounds like the scenario you’re describing might be considered a “Work for Hire”. A Work for Hire is basically when an employee composes something for his employer - the employer owns the copyright. I would look into this link for more information on that. It would certainly be your easiest route.
The other way, is that your friend owns the copyright to his songs, which he is letting you use in your video. Technically speaking, I believe that legally to prove you’re not infringing in this case, you need to obtain a synchronization license (because your’e syncing his audio to your video) from his publisher (even if his publisher is himself - as long as its officially documented), and you might also need a mechanical license as well, it’s been a while since I looked into this stuff.
Needless to say, id seriously recommend the Work for Hire route, if your friend is okay with surrendering all rights to the song.
