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Muserk Claimed the Rights on YouTube to Music I Wrote (Resolved)

Reid Rosefelt

aka Tiger the Frog
Some time ago, I put up a clip on YouTube for a short film I wrote and directed in 2003 called "Tiger: His Fall & Rise," starring my avatar and the late Adrienne Shelly (who went on to direct "Waitress") The film is pretty bad and the "music" I wrote for it is nothing I'm very proud of. This particular clip is largely driven by an Acid loop (which I purchased). But for better or worse, I did write it, people saw the film at festivals, and I copyrighted the film. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420252/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Today I found out that the Music Licensing Company Muserk has claimed that they own the rights to the music I wrote for the clip, and YouTube notified me that I have the right to dispute this. If they deem it to be a false dispute, they will toss me off YouTube.

The slogan of Muserk is "claim your rights." :mad:

This has actually happened once before with a few clips from this same film. In that instance, it was a fairly well-known film company that wanted to claim the movie scenes themselves, not just the music. In that case, I was able to resolve things with YouTube, but I never got an explanation from the company that wanted to take my stuff.

My guess is that many companies just claim ownership willy-nilly of thousands of things on YouTube, and monetize them until somebody complains. To be generous, perhaps they have some kind of computer algorithm doing this for them. Or maybe YouTube even does it. But that's a pretty wide net. Maybe that's okay for a first sort, but at some point, a human being needs to look carefully and determine if infringement did occur before planting their flag. They shouldn't just have YouTube contact a content producer like myself and accuse me of infringement of my own intellectual property. Otherwise, it is fraud as far as I'm concerned.

Has anybody else had experience with something like this?
 
Most likely what happened is that someone added a track to the youtube content ID system and it also uses the same acid loop. If your acid loop is exposed in the mix, then that's what's bringing up the flag. That's why always ensuring a loop isn't solo'd in your mix is a good idea (and many EULA's will state that too).
 
That happend to me but it wasn't Muserk. The first time it was "only" for a couple of months, but the others were never solved, so I have removed all muy videos from youtube.
I understand protección and rights, but when that happens they are stealing yours. And then you find you can't do anything.
I think that is their business model... A sad one if you ask me.

Said that, sometimes I believe it can be a simple mistake.
Try to contact them to be sure.
 
Learn a lesson; write your own music and stop using stock loops. Harsh, but it's the only way to beat this sort of thing. Same goes for synth patches. Never use unaltered presets. Move on, and consider it a lesson learned.
 
What are the usage rights on the Acid loop you used? Assuming it permits commercial use, then dispute the hell out of that claim. The only way to stop these bogus claims is to push back on them. Hard.
 
Learn a lesson; write your own music and stop using stock loops. Harsh, but it's the only way to beat this sort of thing. Same goes for synth patches. Never use unaltered presets. Move on, and consider it a lesson learned.

My loop was never soloed. It was combined with other music. Anyway, that was 15 years ago, and I don't make music like that anymore.

As far as synth presets go, what about the film company that took whole movie clips before?

I wrote a film, I cast it and rehearsed it. The sets were built under my direction, the costumes were made. I directed the cast, worked with the cinematographer and editor. I wrote several songs, which were recorded by pros in a studio. That's just a fraction of what I did and it's a lot more complex than altering a synth preset. And this company had no compunction about claiming ownership.

At best, companies like this have a very casual attitude to the idea of claiming the rights to material just because they see it online. At worse, they are consciously engaging in fraud.

I don't care about my movie, but I was curious to see if this is a common practice. That's why I posted.
 
Learn a lesson; write your own music and stop using stock loops. Harsh, but it's the only way to beat this sort of thing. Same goes for synth patches. Never use unaltered presets. Move on, and consider it a lesson learned.

I’m not sure that’s true for synth patches. Am I missing something?
 
Learn a lesson; write your own music and stop using stock loops. Harsh, but it's the only way to beat this sort of thing. Same goes for synth patches. Never use unaltered presets. Move on, and consider it a lesson learned.

Rubbish.

Use whatever you want and fight for your rights. You made the music, so it is yours and yours alone. The loop and synth manufacturers do not become songwriters for something YOU created. And neither does some corporation using robots to file false copyright claims. Fight!

That is how you win in life. That is the lesson to be learned. Fight, and never relent.
 
Rubbish.

Use whatever you want and fight for your rights. You made the music, so it is yours and yours alone. The loop and synth manufacturers do not become songwriters for something YOU created. And neither does some corporation using robots to file false copyright claims. Fight!

That is how you win in life. That is the lesson to be learned. Fight, and never relent.

From a moral perspective, you are right. If the EULA states that you can use it for commercial productions, then you are completely within your rights to use it.

From a pragmatic perspective, he is right. The only way to be sure to avoid this issue, is to forgo using a loop.
 
From a moral perspective, you are right. If the EULA states that you can use it for commercial productions, then you are completely within your rights to use it.

From a pragmatic perspective, he is right. The only way to be sure to avoid this issue, is to forgo using a loop.

Okay. You guys win. No more loops.
 
yes also happened to me. some random user claimed ownership and i just coudlnt fight it. i had to remove the video.
youtube had a thing to dispute with those same people who flasley claim ownership. i pressed it but never got an answer. try contacting youtube but no avail.
makes no sense. youtube just wants to be a faceless player and places their own rules that poeple think "copyright claim" means copyright law in real life. and if someone uploads someone elses property and no one claims it then its not bad. this share it culture just killing the entertainment biz.
 
i found this:

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797370?hl=en



Common questions about Content ID

What options are available to copyright owners?
Copyright owners can choose different actions to take on material that matches theirs:

  • Block a whole video from being viewed
  • Monetize the video by running ads against it; in some cases sharing revenue with the uploader
  • Track the video’s viewership statistics
Any of these actions can be country-specific. A video may be monetized in one country, and blocked or tracked in another.

Who can use Content ID?

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.

YouTube also sets explicit guidelines on how to use Content ID. We monitor Content ID use and disputes on an ongoing basis to ensure these guidelines are followed.

Content owners who repeatedly make erroneous claims can have their Content ID access disabled and their partnership with YouTube terminated.

If you are a content owner and believe your content meets the criteria, you can https://www.youtube.com/content_id_signup (apply for Content ID).

Related topics
What is a Content ID claim?
 
Rubbish.

Use whatever you want and fight for your rights. You made the music, so it is yours and yours alone. The loop and synth manufacturers do not become songwriters for something YOU created. And neither does some corporation using robots to file false copyright claims. Fight!

That is how you win in life. That is the lesson to be learned. Fight, and never relent.
That's your opinion. However, if the track is "driven" by a loop written by someone else, I would question how much of the track is actually yours in the first place. If you write the loop yourself, you created it, and there would have been no claim in the first place. I'm not saying that the claim is legitimate. I'm saying that as the music is not 100% original, it may not be worth fighting the claim.
 
The way this works for youtube is by actually rewarding copyright claims by larger companies against legitimate smaller copyright owners, or so it would seem according to this

 
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