{"id":1512,"date":"2012-09-23T19:18:39","date_gmt":"2012-09-23T07:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amerinzpodcast.com\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2012-09-23T19:47:57","modified_gmt":"2012-09-23T07:47:57","slug":"changing-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amerinzpodcast.com\/?p=1512","title":{"rendered":"Changing the past"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a bit of a weird story.<\/p>\n

On December 25, 2008, I posted a video called \u201cAuckland Christmas\u201d to YouTube, and also to my podcast as \u201cAmeriNZ Video 03 \u2013 Auckland Christmas<\/a>\u201d (and I also posted a verison to my blog as \u201cAuckland Christmas<\/a>\u201d). The video contained a music track that I used under license from the Podsafe Music Network (now called Mevio Music Alley).<\/p>\n

At some point after I posted the video, the artist apparently signed up with a licensing agency that charges for use. I was unaware any of that had happened\u2014who keeps running checks on tracks they\u2019ve used?<\/p>\n

Today I got an email from YouTube telling me the video \u201cmay have content that is owned or licensed\u201d by the new company (which I\u2019d never heard of, though they\u2019re a \u201cYouTube Partner\u201d, whatever that means). They also said that while this wouldn\u2019t count against me, and the video would remain, there might be ads posted next to the video. However, despite saying \u201cthis claim is not penalising your account status,\u201d they also ominously warned on the notice page that my \u201cvideo’s status can change, if the policies chosen by the content owners change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where it gets really weird: The track is still listed and available on Mevio\u2019s Music Alley\u2014so, therefore, my original license must still be valid. If it\u2019s not, then the burden of proof ought to be on the company claiming licensing rights, and they shouldn\u2019t get free ads at my expense.<\/p>\n

However, I\u2019m not a copyright lawyer and can\u2019t afford one, so I can\u2019t comment on any of the legalities here. Instead, this is only about my sense of right and wrong: I legally used a track provided for my use and I fully complied with the terms of the license I was given. That license appears to still be in effect. I think\u2014but don\u2019t know\u2014that the copyright licenser didn\u2019t take any further action because I complied with the terms of the license I\u2019d been given (and which may still be in effect).<\/p>\n

However, I\u2019m in no position to challenge them or Google\/YouTube. So I was left with few options.<\/p>\n

First, the new company licenses tracks for $1.99 and I could have paid their fee to re-license the track from them, but why should I? As far as I\u2019m concerned, I already had\u2014and still have\u2014a valid license to use the track.<\/p>\n

The second option is the nuclear option: Deleting the video from YouTube (which is a shame because it was the most viewed one I had). This is the option I chose (though I first made it unlisted while I decided what to do).<\/p>\n

My next step was to take the original video project and delete the music track entirely, along with any mention of it in the end credits and written descriptions. I left the end of the video silent as a sort of protest. I then overwrote the copy on my podcast site so the video\u2019s still available.<\/p>\n

My final step will be to upload the altered\/censored video back to YouTube. Had I paid to re-license the track I already have a license for, I\u2019m sure I\u2019d have to alter the credits in the video and re-upload, anyway, so why not instead make a point?<\/p>\n

I chose that track originally because it was free and reasonably inoffensive, meaning, innocuous. It wasn\u2019t overtly religious, as so many Christmas songs are, and wasn\u2019t awful (as, frankly, so much free music is). There was no option to pay anything for the music and, four years ago, there were few if any other options for music I could use legally.<\/p>\n

So there you have it. Some company asserts its muscularity and someone like me has little choice but to surrender\u2014or fight and face the consequences. This song is not worth the fight, even if the principle could be. But since I clearly have no idea what the law says about a situation like this\u2014someone legally uses a music track they\u2019re licensed to use, then later someone else claims the rights\u2014this case is too murky to take a stand on.<\/p>\n

Next time, it may be different.<\/p>\n

This is crossposted to my blog, one of the few times I\u2019ve done that.<\/i><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a bit of a weird story. On December 25, 2008, I posted a video called \u201cAuckland Christmas\u201d to YouTube, and also to my podcast as \u201cAmeriNZ Video 03 \u2013 Auckland Christmas\u201d (and I also posted a verison to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,4,19,10],"tags":[3,51,6,48,12,50],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amerinzpodcast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amerinzpodcast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amerinzpodcast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amerinzpodcast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amerinzpodcast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1512"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/amerinzpodcast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1516,"href":"http:\/\/amerinzpodcast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions\/1516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amerinzpodcast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amerinzpodcast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amerinzpodcast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}