News: beware the copyright troll visiting you.

A discussion about cover versions posted on petrucci forum and another reason to follow my top ten tips for posting youtube videos

9. Tonight I'm going to be a famous guitar player syndrome
Try to avoid too many guitar covers, particularly if the covers are from a single player. e.g. avoid all Malmsteen covers or all Vai covers or all Satriani covers... People will just think you are a clone and not original! If you do post them... they have to be good!

Question: I posted a guitar cover of Ich Tu Dir Weh by Rammstein. They have blocked it on 'copyright grounds'.

Answer: Guys, here's the deal. In the United States, service providers—youtube included (see Tur v. Youtube, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50254, for example)—can claim safe harbor from claims for contributory infringement if they satisfy the requirements of 17 USC 512. I could cite a bunch of code and caselaw at you, but the essential point is that we have to provide copyright owners with a means to request infringing material be removed, and we have to prevent use of our service by repeat infringers.

There are typically at least two copyrights involved with a piece of music: the copyright on the recording and the copyright on the music itself. While it's typically the record company asserting its rights over the recording, presumably the band could assert its copyright over the music. So a note-for-note (or close) cover could violate the latter. Pasha Pook's experience may involve both if the original recording was playing in the background.

The bottom line is that service providers don't want to get sued, and you shouldn't want to either. You do not want to be hauled into a federal lawsuit, and don't think for a second that it doesn't happen. Look up Capitol Records v. Thomas. Likewise, service providers don't want to get sued, although it happens. To tell you the truth, I really doubt that a contributory infringement case could prevail under the prevailing Sony standard, but no service provider in its right mind wants to defend a test case, so everyone covers their ass. If we get a takedown notice, we comply, because you have no basis to sue us if we're too zealous, but they have means and incentive to come after us (and you) if we're not.
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