A word about the YouTube copyright claim dispute process
This has been a constant issue as I post videos of my podcast to the platform.
Hello,
Way back in 2016, before published the very first episode of The Rob Burgess Show, I reached out to the artist Flamingosis to obtain written permission to use their song, “Saturday Night Fever.” They generously agreed.
I have published 273 episodes of this podcast since then and every single time I have uploaded a video version to my YouTube channel with “Saturday Night Fever” as the theme song, I have received a copyright claim. That’s because to produce “Saturday Night Fever,” Flamingosis sampled the song “Gigolette” by Ozone. I’m convinced this is being flagged by a computer program and not initiated by a real person because I have disputed this and have won every single time because the copyright holder, UMG, has let these expire. (Thanks for that, UMG. Please keep doing nothing.)
This is more of an annoyance than a real problem because I always win on this count. Where it runs into trouble is when I have expanded the audio landscapes in my podcast.
For example, on Episode 23, I included mashup songs by regular guest Sean Spicer. After this was published to YouTube it received 11 copyright claims.
I ended up removing the songs from the YouTube version of the episode. (It should be noted I have never had a problem with the audio I post on SoundCloud, and every episode you hear there is as I originally intended.)
I strongly feel my use of outside audio on The Rob Burgess Show should be covered under fair use. I am an award-winning journalist who is providing commentary and criticism. Besides that, it would be impossible to say someone is listening to my podcast instead of going to the original material. But the onus is on me, the creator, to prove that my use is proper. This is flagged by computer and either reviewed or not by the copyright holder. If they reject my dispute, I can appeal but if it’s rejected, I get a copyright strike.
I believe I would prevail under any fair reading of the situation by a neutral third party. But because I don’t want to risk it, even though I feel I am in the right, I usually just remove the song. The end product is damaged and the listener does not get the chance to consume my work on YouTube in the way I intended. This entire process is completely arbitrary and against both the spirit and the letter of the law.
If someone were to complain to me directly I would be glad to have a conversation with them, but this entire process is initiated by robots. I know this to be true because these disputes come in almost immediately after I upload the episodes. Then whoever happens to hold the copyright has a chance to review or not. This entire process is mysterious. Even when I win these disputes, I have no idea if someone is agreeing with me or is just too lazy to check.
The reason I am bringing this up now is that on the most recent episode I interviewed Ericka Verba about her new book, “Thanks to Life: A Biography of Violeta Parra.” I ended the episode with the book’s namesake song, “Gracias a la vida,” before which Ericka read the English translation of the first few lines. But, as you may have guessed, the inclusion of this key song produces a copyright claim on YouTube. My dispute was rejected by the copyright holders, Altafonte Network S.L. So, now I am in the process of being forced to remove the song from the YouTube version of the episode to avoid possibly risking the copyright strike if I lose the appeal. (There is no higher authority on these matters than the YouTube Supreme Court, I guess.)
This is not about money as YouTube is not my main method of distribution and I don’t have enough subscribers on there to qualify for monetization anyway. And there’s really nothing to be done because I’m not going to stop making the podcast I want to make and it seems YouTube isn’t changing their process either. But I take pride in this podcast and I want you to know why the most complete version isn’t always available everywhere it should be.
Well, that’s all I have for this week. Talk to you again next Friday.
Best,
Rob
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