Myspace and Copyrights

Now I'm confused! I've been trusting the mp3 tags that say copyrighted: yes/no. Do they have any meaning?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Most likely not.

Lots about Myspace, nothing about Youtube. Sigh.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Youtube has the same issues. Copyright is copyright. Youtube is aggressively policing their uploaded content as well, for the same reasons.

Copyright true, but the ONLY place one can enforce a copyright claim is in Federal court and that is extremely expensive. So companies write letters hoping to scare people. I suggest a copyright revolution; let them sue. Most threats of lawsuits are total B.S. I'd like to bring the whole copyright system down as it's an elitist farce. But since Rupert Murdoch of evil FOX owns Myspace, what did people expect? Fair play? Dream on. It's time for a revolution against people like Murdoch and his fascist empire.

EDITOR'S NOTE: True, it's not likely that the big media companies will go after the little people (but the RIAA has done exactly that in the past) but if they can sue a Myspace or a Youtube with Deep Pockets, it's well worth their while to make such trouble.

I had the copyright message from myspace but it my own music i uploaded since i am a producer. The problem is i got no working link to the educational program in the PM from myspace!! What do i do now? How do i get to this educational program?

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Copyright Education Program mentioned by Myspace in their "takedown" notices does not seem to exist. They say "click here" but there is no link to click on. Your best bet is to use the link above to contact Myspace customer support.

Sorry for being a bit lengthy here Bob, but I think it's important.

My band had the same thing happen to them when we uploaded a few of the songs off our newly recorded album. One of the parody songs used a backing track from another artist, and this prompted the infamous myspace copyright message and revoked our ability to add any more songs. We saw the "Copyright Education Program" link at that point, and went through it as instructed. But nothing changed. We still can't upload songs. We even contacted Myspace Customer Support and explained the situation, but they never responded, just as Bob predicted above.

Now here's the interesting part. We sat in the studio with a bunch of audiophiles thinking about how this myspace filter might work. It was obviously not a manual process; myspace displayed this message in a manner of seconds. We ruled out mp3 or other tagging because the original mp3 was imported into ProTools and those tags disappear. We also made sure that there couldn't have been any digital encoding in the backing track that got transferred over. This left us with one conclusion: that the filter signal was actually added as analog encoding. This means a series of tones that are not audible would have to be added to the song and then used as a unique identifier for it.
So to test our theory we used a freeware audio editor to speed up the song by a mere 1%, which would increase the pitch of the whole song, including any inaudible tones. We created a new myspace music profile and tried to upload this version of the song. TA-DA! The filter no longer recognized the tones as copyrighted material and successfully uploaded the song with no issues to date.

Now, I also don't condone posting commercially available songs online, but myspace has definitely sacrificed the usability of their product and made a lot of users unhappy. And those users are the ones generating revenue for myspace through advertising impressions and click-throughs. So, I say spread the word, and hopefully myspace will handle the situation more professionally next time.

Cheers!

I tried posting a video that I had taken with my own camera of my own children (that I had physically given birth to out of my own body) ice skating in their figure skating class performance (fully dressed mind you). They took my video off and accused me of either violating terms and conditions or copy right infringement (they couldn't even tell me which). The only thing I could find 'wrong' with my video (after reading through all the terms and conditions again and again) is the fact that their performance was set to music. I don't care about the music, I just wanted the video of my children figure skating to share with my family and friends, but I'm just a Mom I don't know how to get the stupid music off of the video so it's stuck there.
I tried e-mailing MySpace's customer service (since the link in the e-mail they sent me didn't work) and all I've gotten back are automated responses that don't even address the problem. I read about a similar case on YouTube with a mom just wanting to post a video of her baby/toddler dancing to a song. There are true criminals out there violating copyrights for their own personal/financial gain, why are they going after moms who just want to share their children's activities with their family and friends?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm sure the problem was the music in the background. They have automated scanners that look for that. It's possible to open the video in Windows Movie Maker (or Mac iMovie) and strip out the audio, then save.

Ok i had uploaded a video on youtube at first then i had the idea of uploading the SAME VIDEO I HAD MADE FROM YOUTUBE ON TO MYSPACE, but then the claim that i had stole this video or some other foolish accusations but that video i had uploaded recently (2-14-09) was purely made from me and had no content from a diferent video and they left a message sayin' that we will delete your account for multiple copyright issues, the Myspace message quote was "Audio or video content has been blocked or removed from your profile.
Content may be blocked/removed because we received a notice from the copyright owner claiming you were infringing its rights, because the content was recognized by MySpace's copyright filter, or because your use of the content violated MySpace's Terms and Conditions.

As a result, your upload privileges have been suspended.
To reinstate your upload privileges, you must click here to complete our Copyright Education Program.

If this content was misidentified or was removed in error, and you are the copyright owner of the content and/or have all necessary legal rights to upload the content, you may submit this Form within 10 business days to dispute the claimed infringement. The form will be forwarded to the party claiming to be the copyright owner. If you complete this form, do not delete the media file in question. (The media file will not be viewable to others but it needs to remain associated with your profile so it may be reviewed by the party claiming to be the copyright owner.) If you delete the media file, your dispute will be considered withdrawn and you will not receive a response.

MySpace terminates the accounts of repeat copyright infringers. Please be careful not to include content on your profile that you do not have permission to use so you can continue to be a part of the MySpace community.

Thank you,
MySpace. com."

and i'm confused/shocked on all this.

Hello,
Out of nowhere, I received the same notice in my Myspace in box as Kenny posted above, about one of my songs.. and I repeat MY songs... a song I wrote 5 years ago and had copyrighted then as well. I have the registration paperwork from the Library of Congress and so on to prove it. Yet, the only way I can dispute this nonsense claim by someone who wrote in to Myspace is to fill out a form with ALL OF MY PERSONAL info.. including my home address and such, which gets forwarded to the complainant who REMAINS ANONYMOUS to me. Ridiculous. I went ahead to the US Copyright site and did a search on my song.. provided the link to the myspace people.. IT IS PUBLIC RECORD that I wrote this song... and I also did a title search of similar titles and provided links just to show that there is no way this in an infringement on someone's song. I think it is outrageous that someone can make a complaint and based on that alone, they can take a song off my page and make ME provide proof.. How about asking the complainant to provide the same kind of proof? Why does the complainant get my form forwarded to them when I don't even know who is making this claim?

I am so disgusted by this. May I mention I am a professional woman (teacher) in my 50's who follows the rules.. is a mom and a grandmother and does anyone there really think I would compromise my professional status by doing something stupid like taking someone else's song? May I also mention that the song was recorded in response to a colleague losing her baby in utero a week before it was to be born. and she had to then have a C-section to deliver a deceased child.. then bury it? I sent all of this to Myspace.. and the only reply was the pat answer of having to fill out the form if I am indeed the copyright owner of the song.. that will be forwarded to the complainant... awful.. just awful...

I am a designer, I have copy righted my own work, and glad to do it. It was my own inspiration and skills that made it a piece of Art. Why should artist give up their rights to there property? May that art be music, imagery, or text? People that think it is a small issue seem to have missed out on that basic rule of society. “I shall not covet others property” So many people, Think if I do not get caught, it is all right. WRONG! It is a form of theft, and you can face criminal and civil penalties. As to the person, that thinks they own the copy right, when they only buy a copy of said copy righted material, for there own personal use only, not for public use. Needs to learn a little ethics. But there is Music that can be used, that is available on the myspace website. I have a brad paisley loaded on my page. He is one of the music artist, that have placed songs in the open domain, to be used at myspace website. What artist or songs that are available, I am not sure.

My profile was not only purged but every post and every thread I ever started was purged. No notificiation, no warning, no explaination. My suggestion--Go somewhere else and give MySpace the finger!!!