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Facebook Copyright Infringement
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So I find this relatively funny.
The same site that conspired to steal ALL of our material, what? TWO months ago? by changing their ToS out from under our noses and saying “All Y’all’s Content Are Belong To Us” decided to remove a video of mine from Facebook.
This is what my Facebook home page currently looks like:
Click for high-res version
This morning (April 28, 2009), I received this email:
Subject: Notification of Alleged Copyright Violation
Hello,
We have removed your video entitled “Down. 2007-2009″ uploaded at 5:12am April 21st, 2009. We did this because it appears to contain copyrighted material owned by a third party, such as a video clip or background audio. If you believe this material was removed by mistake, you may file a counter notice of alleged infringement by following the link below.
Please note that if you re-upload this video without filing a counter notice, or if you upload another video that infringes on the rights of a third party, we may remove the content. This could cause your access to the Facebook Video application, or your Facebook account itself, to be disabled.
To file a counter notice:
File a Counter NotificationFor any other questions, view our Help page.
The Facebook Team
Now, I don’t care at all that they took the video down and I don’t have any problems with it. Actually, I didn’t want to post it to Facebook in the first place, but it was the only way I could tag the Facebook Members that were in the video.
This is also interesting because it reminds me of YouTube’s policy of stripping audio from videos.
As we all know by now, the best deal is to have copies of your material in case the site you upload your content to changes it’s ToS on you or folds entirely. (Neither situation having anything to do with this particular post).
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16 Responses to “Facebook Copyright Infringement”
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I heard of a woman who had a Facebook group for a year with hundreds of subscribers and it just got pulled down with no reason given….and they wouldn’t let her log on. The take away from that is if you’re going to start a group, have a second member who has administrative privileges so you can run it if FB gets uppity.
Also, remember this freedom of expression blunder around breast feeding that Facebook incurred:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-talk-breastfeedingdec31,0,922482.story
Hey Justin. :)
Basically, this has been a debate for years already. Facebook isn’t unique here.
YouTube built their entire empire on piracy and then decided to clean it up around the time of the Google sale, and even more now that they’re trying to expand to distributing content in places other than YouTube/Google. The whole point is that it’s cool to use copyrighted stuff to get people to come TO your site, but when you turn around and try to monetize that same site by placing UGC (User-Generated Content) on OTHER sites or even television stations then you have to do your best to eradicate instances of the exact same thing you built your site on in the first place.
“Stage 6″ used to host video for A LOT of people, but then the service folded and gave people notice that after X day, their files would be inaccessible, so they needed to pull their video from Stage 6 and re-upload it to a service that they HOPED wouldn’t go down anytime soon. That doesn’t have anything to do with copyright, but it has to do with your BELIEVING that your content is going to be available next year or the year after next.
So my point in posting this has nothing to do with the reasons for removal. I have ZERO problems with Facebook removing the video. :) My point is that when you use one of these services instead of hosting video yourself, you’re taking the chance that someone’s going to decide (for reasons that are valid or invalid) that they’re going to remove your content. What you get in return for this precarious situation is EXPOSURE.
The only reason to post videos to Facebook is that you can tag people who are in the video, which means that your video shows up on THEIR profile page. The other option is if people are subscribed to your videos or you have a newsletter or you email people when videos are released or contact them in some other way. Ease of contact and exposure is the value. Being subjected (voluntarily) to that site’s ToS (regardless of changes they make on the fly) is your cost.
This is why I don’t post videos to YouTube AT. ALL. I used to back in the day, when I was trying out different video hosts, but the ToS was so horrible that it wasn’t worth ‘investing’ my videos there. A couple years down the line, when YouTube tries to clean up its act, their solution is to rip audio out of people’s videos that have already been on their site for YEARS. Oh! There’s some Prince music in that video? Remove it! See, that’s all well and good IF that’s how your site started out, but when it started out with every single Prince record and concert video in creation being uploaded there, why should some soccer mom not feel perfectly comfortable that when she uploads a video of her baby dancing to “Let’s Go Crazy”, it’s going to remain on youtube without issue?
So the point here isn’t what happened to my video. The point is what CAN happen to YOUR video, YOUR audio, YOUR pictures or as you pointed out, your GROUP, FAN PAGE or YOUR ENTIRE ACCOUNT! So, one should have a forward-thinking plan and either self-host or use a site like Tubemogul to hyperdistribute content. Either way, having all of your eggs in one basket is NEVER the way to go when it comes to the internet.
Also, it would be cool if you posted said video on your blog to let us all judge for ourselves if there was indeed copyright infringement…that is if you still have it handy.
Bill,
This just happened to me this morning with a video I posted on the 25th…I haven’t seen the video removed yet though.
Hey Mike! :D
Don’t worry hahahaha This is going to happen to A LOT OF PEOPLE in the near future! :D
[...] I uploaded a video to Facebook that was removed because someone complained about it: Click for high-res version [...]
Hi Bill
Whats happening with Face Book suddenly its i hav uploaded a copy right thing? Dude we have figure out how can we upload the videos in the future.
Regards
djleon
Hey Leon.
Unfortunately, this is the game we’re playing right now. Whomever owns the house gets to make the rules.
Since none of us are paying a dime to use Facebook or Twitter or anything else, we don’t get to say what videos go on it.
Your best bet is to have a YouTube account and upload videos as links instead of loading them directly to Facebook. You lose out on the ability to tag your friends and some other stuff, but at least your videos will be on your profile page and they’ll show up if your friends are subscribed to the links you post.
Thanks for the comment! :D
I had the same problem on facebook but the thing is that I got the copyright notice a minute after uploading it. I think there are copyright “tags” emmbedded to certain audio files that matches with to a copyright database in facebook/youtube. If it “matches’ then the sites automataticly disables audio or cancel the video.
They might be doing it by software now. There are probably programs set up to listen to videos and determine whether there are copyrighted songs in them.
I have Shazam for my gPhone, and it picks songs out of the air when I hold it up to a speaker.
I just had the same problem. Uploaded a home-made video of my fish tank. Was just learning how to use movie make & used an audio track from one of my CD’s for th 60 second video. It was taken down within seconds of posting. Yet when I look at status updates I see complete videos of copyrighted material been loaded by others. One guy uploads at least 20 per day. You’d think they’d be a little more worried about those that being able to hear 30 seconds of “billion dollar babies” in the video of my new baby cichlids.
Interesting, Chia Chic.
The fact of the matter is that nobody’s paying for Facebook, so Facebook gets to set the rules. If a company has a problem with a Facebook video, they’re going to come after Facebook and not you. For that reason, they need to keep as much copyrighted music out of their videos as they can.
You’re better off posting your videos to YouTube and making a link to them on Facebook. If Facebook’s trying to get bought, they don’t want their valuation diminished by having all sorts of pending lawsuits like YouTube did when Google was going to buy them.
It’s really strange, but you actually don’t have the “right” to use music that you bought yourself in videos that you put on a third party site like Facebook. I don’t know the legal way to explain it, but it’s like you have the right to listen to it but not to broadcast it. We’ll see how this goes in the future.
My sister had the same problem this morning. One minute after posting her video on Facebook and, voila a large warning on her home page. My question is – How can she delete the copyright notice ?
Thanks for any help
Smiler
Hey Smiler. Dunno what you mean by “delete the copyright notice”, but in the image I posted, there’s a checkbox that says “I acknowledge I have read this information”. She has to check that and then click “Acknowledge” to take that memo off of her screen.
At this point, they’re probably using a program to detect copyrighted music if they’re finding it that fast. I hope that program has a provision for when people actually have PERMISSION to use music from a company in their videos. I don’t see how that’s possible, though. You’d probably have to personally contact someone @ Facebook to tell them / prove to them that you have permission, and then there MIGHT be some action. Dunno.
Meanwhile.. Tell your sister to stop posting videos with copyrighted music in it (AKA: Anything she heard on the radio). Facebook is notorious for changing their ToS (Terms of Service) without notice, so you don’t want her account to get jerked because she’s trying to post videos.
Thanks Bill, I will pass the msg on. I did explain things to Sarah after I had visited your site. Cheers man. She did what you suggested and posted her video on youtube, then made a link to bacefook. We can only wait and see how long it takes youtube to do the same thing.
It pisses me off really. She was only having fun and sharing her holiday pictures with her friends in a cool style. Oh well, that’s the law.
I have given my sister a few links to ‘free’ music sites, and explained how copyright works.
Once again, thanks very much and keep up the good work.
All the best…………..
Smiler
You’re Welcome. :)
You can also have her check out freemusicarchive.org. I’m not personally a fan of most Creative Commons music, but there are lots of artists that would enjoy the exposure of someone using their work and hyperlinking back to their websites or locations where people can buy the music they heard in your videos.
The best way to go is to have some kind of permission from a group to use their music and then mention the name of their record, band, and website in the video and also hyperlink it from your blog post.
Good Luck! :D