# Copyrights: when YouTube blocks your music ("video unavailable")



## creativeforge (Jun 12, 2019)

Well, that was a bit of a shock/surprise. I used royalty-free video footage to fill my music video. Today I found out that:






"Video unavailable. 
This video contains content from Vlaamse Radio en Televisie Omroeporganisatie, who has blocked it on copyright grounds."

I got no notification from YouTube either. I send a message to that corporation via Messenger (can't find an email and their website is mostly in Dutch) to find out more, and to YouTube (anybody on the other side?). The music is all mine. All the footage was royalty-free.

Anyone ever have this happen to them? Were you successful in having this corrected? If so how did you go about it?

Thanks!

Andre


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## Royosho (Jun 12, 2019)

Where was the royalty footage from?


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## creativeforge (Jun 12, 2019)

Royosho said:


> Where was the royalty footage from?



These are some of them.

https://www.videvo.net/video/walking-through-barley-field/3647/

https://www.videvo.net/video/forest-floor-tilt-up/3502/

I also used free videos from Pexels.com.
https://www.pexels.com/video/ocean-waves-video-1093652/

And Pixabay: 
https://pixabay.com/videos/night-sky-stars-universe-motion-1096/


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## Royosho (Jun 12, 2019)

Unfortunate, someone must of uploaded some free footage they didn't own possibly? I would of thought Videvo uploads where legit. Until Vlaamse Radio en Televisie Omroeporganisatie responds, removing one clip at a time might be the only solution. Unless it's an error. I'd assume the issue is from pexels or pixabay. Maybe it's the vimeo cosmos video, since vimeo isn't technically royalty free and there's a possibility someone uploaded something they didn't own to vimeo and then it got sent to pixabay.


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## Jaap (Jun 12, 2019)

If you need help with some translation, then let me know Andre


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## creativeforge (Jun 12, 2019)

Jaap said:


> If you need help with some translation, then let me know Andre



Thanks Jaap!


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## creativeforge (Jun 13, 2019)

UPDATE: I heard from VRT and they "released" my content. I asked for clarifications as to what exactly happened, so we'll see if they find out and let me know. Maybe they won't. Sounds like a blunder to me. 

But it is disconcerting how easy it was for this to happen without justification. Wonder how much YouTube content gets easily blocked this way? 

Anyways, just wanted to let you know it's fixed. 

Cheers,

Andre


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## Reid Rosefelt (Jun 16, 2019)

I have been flagged a few times on music I wrote and video I shot myself, including a movie that I copyrighted and posted the copyright. In each cases, YouTube offered me an opportunity to challenge it and it always came out in my favor. 

People have suggested here that it’s dangerous to make music out of commercial loops or even some synth presets because somebody else may have used the stuff in a piece and registered it. 

I believe that there are people and companies who deliberately go on YouTube claiming things they do not own (perhaps using robots to do the work) and wait to see if anybody responds. If nobody does, they monetize it themselves. Another example of the lawlessness of the Internet. I cannot figure out any other way a respected company can look at a movie that I wrote and directed and say that it was theirs. I wrote the company that claimed my movie and asked for an explanation—they never responded.


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## creativeforge (Jun 16, 2019)

TigerTheFrog said:


> I have been flagged a few times on music I wrote and video I shot myself, including a movie that I copyrighted and posted the copyright. In each cases, YouTube offered me an opportunity to challenge it and it always came out in my favor.
> 
> People have suggested here that it’s dangerous to make music out of commercial loops or even some synth presets because somebody else may have used the stuff in a piece and registered it.
> 
> I believe that there are people and companies who deliberately go on YouTube claiming things they do not own (perhaps using robots to do the work) and wait to see if anybody responds. If nobody does, they monetize it themselves. Another example of the lawlessness of the Internet. I cannot figure out any other way a respected company can look at a movie that I wrote and directed and say that it was theirs. I wrote the company that claimed my movie and asked for an explanation—they never responded.



Thing is, it's a piece of piano music I improvised. I did have it released, but I never got an opportunity to challenge the ban, there was no such option offered. And like you, I asked for clarification but it's been dead silence. 

Wow, it's a jungle out there... I know there are images hunters hired by stock images websites, but how could someone claim a snippet of sound from someone else, register it and then monetize it? That is the lowest of the low, imho. But I believe it happens in our world...


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## Reid Rosefelt (Jun 16, 2019)

creativeforge said:


> Thing is, it's a piece of piano music I improvised. I did have it released, but I never got an opportunity to challenge the ban, there was no such option offered. And like you, I asked for clarification but it's been dead silence.
> 
> Wow, it's a jungle out there... I know there are images hunters hired by stock images websites, but how could someone claim a snippet of sound from someone else, register it and then monetize it? That is the lowest of the low, imho. But I believe it happens in our world...


If somebody builds a piece of music around a commercial loop or a synth preset arpeggio and then wants to sell what they've done--I get how conflicts can happen. If the computer trackers the register uses hears the same sounds in somebody else's music, I can see why they might see infraction. But that kind of thing can be resolved. As far as I can tell, it often is. 

On the other hand, I don't see how somebody can look at a movie scene with SAG actors, with camera work, sets, costumes, music, etc, can say "that's my work!" What computer algorithm makes that kind of decision? Even when it's on IMDb and it's played at festivals, etc.? And stars Tiger the Frog and the late Adrienne Shelly? But it happened with my movie-- and it was a well-known and respected company that tried to rip it off. I have often done business with that company. 

There is one set of rules about copyright and fair use in the real world, but an entirely different one for YouTube. On YouTube, anybody in the world can just make a claim about something made by an independent person. And it belongs to the thief until it is challenged. The thief can monetize it. Anybody who wants to use footage has to pay the thief. 

This is insane, but it isn't a story that the media cares about because the property thieves always seem to surrender their "rights" when the actual creators/owners turn up.


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## Fredeke (Jun 16, 2019)

This once happened to me, because I used some free samples very prominently and apparently a copyrighted song used the same ones prominently too. I suppose the same could happen with images?


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## creativeforge (Jun 16, 2019)

Fredeke said:


> This once happened to me, because I used some free samples very prominently and apparently a copyrighted song used the same ones prominently too. I suppose the same could happen with images?



I wish I knew. I spent weeks a few years ago "defending" a friends from the claims of a company hired by Getty to pursue people who use their images without buying them. The claim was frivolous (a tiny blog, the pic was found using Google and the guy immediately took it off when they contacted him). But they were very serious, and it took weeks to get them to back off. Since then I'm really really careful not to use anything that isn't specifically royalty-free (you have to buy some of them).

I hope to hear back from that media outfit in Holland, but they seemed to just want the issue to quickly disappear. And I don't use loops for my music. But the images/clips are free, so I don't know how they could be claimed on a copyright basis. Usually if someone buys the rights, the clips are removed from inventory.


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## Fredeke (Jun 16, 2019)

creativeforge said:


> I hope to hear back from that media outfit in Holland


From its name, I'm sure it's in Belgium: Vlaams means Flemish, aka from Flanders, the half of Belgium adjacent to Holland. They speak Dutch too. 

And since I'm from Belgium too (though the other half), I don't feel too proud right now.


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## creativeforge (Jun 16, 2019)

Fredeke said:


> From its name, I'm sure it's in Belgium: Vlaams means Flemish, aka from Flanders, the half of Belgium adjacent to Holland. They speak Dutch too.
> 
> And since I'm from Belgium too (though the other half), I don't feel too proud right now.



Well, Belgium the country is not to blame, so your national pride can remain intact...  But you are right, it is in Belgium. I must have followed this link: https://www.vrt.be/nl/ instead on this one: 
*Vlaamse Radio en Televisie Omroeporganisatie*


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## Kony (Jun 16, 2019)

creativeforge said:


> I got no notification from YouTube either. I send a message to that corporation via Messenger (can't find an email and their website is mostly in Dutch) to find out more, and to YouTube (anybody on the other side?). The music is all mine. All the footage was royalty-free.


I'm guessing maybe the video footage is no longer royalty-free - ie someone may have bought it out exclusively, or they changed their Ts & Cs. Weird how you got no notification from YouTube though....


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## creativeforge (Jun 16, 2019)

Kony said:


> I'm guessing maybe the video footage is no longer royalty-free - ie someone may have bought it out exclusively, or they changed their Ts & Cs. Weird how you got no notification from YouTube though....



Exactly. Which is why I am hoping to hear back and get clarity. If one of the clips have been now copyrighted by VRT (I checked a few and they were still royalty-free), they should at least let me know so I don't run into a copyright battle down the road. I'd change that clip for something else.


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## Kony (Jun 17, 2019)

I hope you get a response from them - I'm curious how they could take it down without any communication.


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## Fredeke (Jun 17, 2019)

Kony said:


> I hope you get a response from them - I'm curious how they could take it down without any communication.


That's how it goes on YouTube... Presumed guilty until proven innocent, and no one is really interested in hearing about your innocence.
YouTube indulges the powerful because it's safer and easier (verifying every claim would require actual work), and doesn't care about your rights because they don't need to. That's the problem with a quasi-monopoly - which we, internet users, made happen.

I don't like being pessimistic, but many youtubers have tried communicating with either YouTube or their accuser in situations like this, only to be answered with dead silence.
And I hate being the bringer of bad news, but it's going to become even worse in Europe after the new IP laws are implemented.


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