Monday, July 18, 2011

Copyright Infringment®

A while ago I got slapped with an Infringement Notice sent by Warner Music. The dispute was that a music video I'd created for an artist was illegally using the music . This seemed like a strange issue considering I've always thought of the music videos I've created as being mere ads for the artists themselves, who's purpose is to sell records.

This Infringement Notice notice gave me a few options. I could a). Take the clip down. b). I could challenge it with Warners Lawyers (not the recommended option.) c). Or, have the option to manually on YouTube, switch out the audio track, and keep the video up. I chose option "C" and picked, of all things, a spiritual Norma Fraser track.

The artist wasn't very happy about this, and contacted me right away, wondering what happened. He went through the channels at Warner Music and got it settled.

This got me thinking, what on earth is Warner Music doing? They just made the video into a Norma Fraser music video, that isnt even on their label. It goes to show how the large music companies just don't get it. It almost seems like they're analog radio enthusiasts showing up at a cable television conference. After the whole incident, I finally got the idea that there are no more artists in these companies. Warner Music is pretty much a building filled with lawyers.

No comments: