I think we have a problem...

[Treklink256]

About a week ago, I loaded some of my HRC videos onto YouTube for other Stadium players to watch and enjoy. You can imagine my suprise when YouTube began removing my videos for copyright infringement, of all things. At first I was puzzled as to how they ran afoul of copyright law - after all, they're MY videos.

Then I realized that it was because I added some background music by country artist Garth Brooks. After doing a little research, I found this website, which described how multimedia giant Viacom has thrown a legal net over every copyright they own (and they own a lot) and demanded that YouTube remove thousands of videos containing copyrighted Viacom material.

www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=45380&src=site-marq

As you probably know, the Fair Use clause under the DMCA allows small clips of copywritten material to be re-used in videos like the Stadium videos here on Smashvrs.com without any problems. However, after talking the matter over with some friends who have had similar legal problems, I found that not only must credit be given to the artist and publisher, but the audio clipping itself must not be longer than 15 seconds in length (think of the short audio clips you hear on the 11-o-clock news during coverage of a concert or something). Since all of my HRC videos are over 15 seconds in length, they were all running afoul of copyright laws. And not just the two that were taken down - ALL of them.

Then I started thinking about the massive number of videos on this website. Many of them contain background music by popular artists. Unless whoever made the videos got explicit written permission from the copyright holder to use their material for EVERY video (and if they did, disregard this entire thread), all of the videos on this site that contain copywritten background music are apparently running afoul of copyright laws.

Guys, this is HUGE. I think smashvrs.com is a 50-megaton legal nuclear time bomb waiting to go off. PYh189 and ConqerRON would likely have a massive and enormously expensive legal problem if anyone at the RIAA caught wind of what was going on here. Those of you who have videos on the main site that contain copywritten music in them should seriously consider having PYh189 removing them and provide him with versions of the videos that do not contain copywritten material.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. I just really like this site, and don't want to see it shut down or worse for copyright problems. We've gone this long without any incidents, but I think it's best to do the right thing and cover our backsides.

That is all. Carry on.

[Nintendude1189]

I think most of the videos with copyrighted music are the bad quality ones with no game sounds. It should be easy to just stick another song in them. That leaves vids like Sin's HRC vids. Does Viacom own the songs in that Smashing Live CD?

[Treklink256]

Yhea, I think if we take care of this NOW, then we shouldn't have any problems. All we have to do is recompile the videos to remove the copywritten music and reupload them.

As for Sin2324's vids that use the Smashing Live music, I really don't know as I don't own it. I'll try to find out, but if it's held under a copyright like most CD's are, then it doesn't really matter who it's published by - any other publisher could easily do what Viacom is doing. If the person who made the video doesn't own the copyright, it's gotta go.

EDIT: The Smashing Live! CD appears to be (c) 2002 Nintendo/HAL Labratory Inc./Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK Inc/INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS. As far as I can tell, there's no relation between those entities and Viacom, but again, since it is held under copyright by somebody, they have to go, too.

Again, I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not trying to give legal advice or anything. I just want to make sure this doesn't turn into a major problem.

[1221]

Treklink: Did you have keywords on your youtube videos that had to do with the music in it? From what I've read, it seems like they didn't delete songs based on specific editors checking for songs, rather they deleted what seems to be in mass by searching for specific key words.

[Treklink256]

^Yes, sort of. I thought I should give credit to the artist in the video description, so I did so. That's apparently what did me in. Ironic, isn't it?

I probably would've gotten away with it by simply re-uploading the videos and changing the description. But being a law-abiding citizen that I am **tries to look innocent** I figured I should do the right thing and take the vids down instead. I'm just suggesting that we do the same here to avoid any potential conflicts later down the road.

[Nintendude1189]

Just some thoughts....

Treklink, you just said that they removed the ones with the song in the description, which means Youtube just used keywords to uncover the videos. I highly doubt they'll be watching 23402394 videos trying to find ones that use Viacom music.

Smash Video Records is even less likely to be affected for a bunch of reasons:

1. SVR is known by maybe 2000 people max, while Youtube is known by millions.

2. Only SSBM fans really go to this site and spend any time here.

3. SVR isn't a streaming site, so people are forced to download videos to find the music. I don't think some law-enforcer guy who doesn't give a crap about SSBM is going to download tons and tons of videos from here in an attempt to find the ones with the music.

[Treklink256]

nintendude1189 said:

Just some thoughts....

Treklink, you just said that they removed the ones with the song in the description, which means Youtube just used keywords to uncover the videos. I highly doubt they'll be watching 23402394 videos trying to find ones that use Viacom music.

Smash Video Records is even less likely to be affected for a bunch of reasons:

1. SVR is known by maybe 2000 people max, while Youtube is known by millions.

2. Only SSBM fans really go to this site and spend any time here.

3. SVR isn't a streaming site, so people are forced to download videos to find the music. I don't think some law-enforcer guy who doesn't give a crap about SSBM is going to download tons and tons of videos from here in an attempt to find the ones with the music.

It is unlikely that we'll have any legal problems because of this, but if this were my site, I don't think I would want to take that risk regardless of what the chances are. The potential legal consequences are far too great for my tastes. A law-enforcement officer might not give a crap, but I bet a hired goon or a bot from a major recording label (like the one that likely found my videos on YouTube) certainly would. This is PYh189's site, though, so it's up to him. I just thought I'd try to save him from a potentially huge legal problem (IMNAL).