Avoiding Copyright Violations on YouTube
YouTube is home to 2.3 billion users worldwide, and it is one of the most popular online platforms for viewing and sharing videos. Many of these videos feature people performing original songs or covers of famous songs. Anyone is free to upload content to YouTube, but not all published content necessarily complies with U.S. copyright law. YouTube has its own automated copyright enforcement system that detects infringing content and notifies users and copyright owners of current violations. To avoid committing a copyright violation on YouTube, there are several steps you can take to ensure the content you upload to your channel fully complies with the law.
Original Songs vs. Songs in the Public Domain
It’s not necessary to obtain a license in order to upload one of your own original songs or a song that is in the public domain. (Although, you may want to think twice before posting an original song, unless you have already obtained copyright protection for your work.) Otherwise, in order to legally publish a cover song on YouTube, you’ll need a mechanical license and a sync license.
Obtaining a Mechanical License
Mechanical licenses apply to audio-only works. You’ll need a mechanical license to use any portion of a copyrighted song in your cover performance. A mechanical license enables you reproduce and distribute the copyrighted material, meaning that you can create and perform a cover version of the copyrighted song. However, it is important to note that a mechanical license only provides the right to use copyrighted audio material for other works that are recorded in an audio-only format. If your cover song contains elements from more than one copyrighted song, you’ll need separate mechanical licenses for each copyrighted song that you plan to use in your cover.
Obtaining a Synchronization License
In addition to a mechanical license, you’ll also need a to obtain a synchronization license (commonly referred to as a ‘sync’ license) for the visual portion of your cover video, since music videos include a combination of audio and visual elements. There are two ways to obtain a sync license. You can obtain a license directly from the song’s copyright owner or you can go through YouTube’s Content ID program.
YouTube Copyright Violations
YouTube uses an automated technology called Content ID that identifies and manages copyright holders’ content on YouTube. The copyright owner provides YouTube a reference copy of the content and the Content ID software scans YouTube for matching content. If Content ID finds a match, YouTube notifies copyright owner of violation, and the copyright owner can decide whether to monetize the video or remove it. If the owner decides to monetize the infringing content, the video can remain published, but it will need to include ads in order compensate the copyright owner. If the owner wishes to have the infringing content removed, YouTube will automatically pull the video from public access and it will notify the person who uploaded the video of this action.
Beware of YouTube’s Three Strikes Policy. YouTube applies a strike to a user’s account every time a user’s content violates the Community Guidelines. When a copyright owner submits a valid DMCA complaint, YouTube will remove the infringing video and notify the infringing users. A user who accumulates three strikes within a 90-day period will be banned from YouTube.
You can avoid copyright violations when uploading cover songs to YouTube by obtaining the necessary mechanical and synchronization licenses. If you are unsure of whether your YouTube content is compliant with copyright law, contact an intellectual property attorney who can review your content and provide you with proper recommendations based on the applicable policies and laws.
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