Copyright for Youtube

Jjjjjjjbarry

Hello,

I want to make a simple youtube video for a charitable organisation that consists of photos with a full song playing in the background. I know the song I want to use and it's not on the list of the free songs available in youtube editor.
Obviously I don't want to get in any trouble so wondering what options I have?

I see this sort of thing done all of the time whereby a full song is playing in the background of a custom make video. The audience of this video will likely never exceed 500 views I'd imagine!

If I credit the artist at the end of the video does that make it ok?
How is everyone else doing this? I see videos shared on facebook every day doing this sort of thing so does that mean they have got permission or are they just doing it illegally?

Thanks!

johnny_ultimate

The bulk of the time it's illegal or done without permission. You could credit the artist and claim fair use, but it would be far from foolproof and just crediting the artist is not instant protection.

That said, I'd pretty confidently state you won't get in to much trouble for it - the worst that will happen is they'll mute the music and ask you to replace it with one of their verified tracks instead. Very possibly it won't raise any flags at all, and I believe some labels have arranged with YouTube that they'll have a link ad to buy the song featured instead of deleting it.

It's your call - you won't be doing it with permission if you do feature a copyrighted song. But very possibly there won't be any issues with it if you did.

If your charitable organisation wants to do everything by the book to make sure there's no issue, you could always contact the label and ask their permission to use the song. Explain the situation and say there's no budget for licensing. Obviously if they say no you're not going to be able to use it regardless, so that's a risk :pac:

Final option: use royalty free music. All you need to do is credit the artist under creative commons. The music won't be the best of the best, but it often does the job as background music. Have a gander here: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/collections.php

ScumLord

I've put up videos that have licensed music playing over it but it was also a charity event. I usually turn off monetization, I think youtube only put real effort into checking videos if they're paying money out on them.

Jjjjjjjbarry

Thanks everyone!

Rew

3 possible outcomes:

1) Nothing happens (least likely to happen)
2) They claim copyright of the video automatically and put ads in it that they get the money from (most likely to happen)
3) They remove the sound from the video automatically

I've had all 3 happen.

Mebuntu

I've uploaded quite a number of videos to youtube including some that had other artist's music used as background music to set the mood. After upload, Youtube usually asks me to tick a box acknowledging "Third Party Content" and that's been the end of it.

househero

Mebuntu wrote: »

I've uploaded quite a number of videos to youtube including some that had other artist's music used as background music to set the mood. After upload, Youtube usually asks me to tick a box acknowledging "Third Party Content" and that's been the end of it.

That wasnt the end of it. The third party is now able to run their ads on your video and benefit from your views.

Use free to broadcast music. Dont steal music.

ScumLord

househero wrote: »

That wasnt the end of it. The third party is now able to run their ads on your video and benefit from your views.

Use free to broadcast music. Dont steal music.

Well yes, if you acknowledge there's third party content that third party get to take all the money generated by that video. But if you're only making a video for a small event and value the music more so that the outside chance you're going to make €70 at some stage then I don't see it as a problem.

You can use the music you just won't earn any money from your video. For the most part most people won't be earning much money from their youtube videos anyway.