My youngest child use to have lots of fun doing little toy reviews and putting them on KZread. She would get her music from the KZread copyright free download page. Same with her little sound effects. She learned to edit, interacted with lots of kids, learned a lot. It was great. Then the copyright trolls came out and attacked every video, every little sound she used and terrified her. We tried our best to keep her head in it, responding to all the issues but it became so stressful she just gave up. Keep in mind this was all 100% on KZread for kids as well. So these insects are there too. Sad really.

@mk_rexx

11 ай бұрын

That sucks so much. Imagine ROYALTY FREE music getting copyrighted. KZread should be doing something about this. I wish your daughter could continue what you are passionate about.

@N0stalgicLeaf

11 ай бұрын

That's vile and reprehensible. We all have to learn about our human capacity for evil at some point but going through it like this is tragic. Perhaps there is no encounter with evil that isn't tragic. What a wonderful talent and drive though, I hope she finds another avenue to put those skills to use.

@Timberwolf69

11 ай бұрын

It fills me with anger and sadness to hear this. I sure hope your young one still enjoys the fun of creativity somewhere else. Calling these... trolls "insects" is an insult to any insect on this planet. Though I think even trolls would be slightly upset to be compared to these... (I simply have no fitting word for these beings).

@Gil-games

11 ай бұрын

It happened to me too, every copyright free music i use, i get a strike on, if i reclaimed it, it's removed, but still annoying as hell

@jrrarglblarg9241

11 ай бұрын

A channel that posts telecine transfers of old gov’t films got copyright struck for the sound of wind. Literally, the sound effect of wind, from one of those records of public domain sound effects all the 16mm films used. Except that it wasn’t what the claim came from, that came from a song named “the sound of wind” one of those 9 minute djent metal dirges from a band you’ve never heard of.

There should be consequences for submitting a false claim.

@richardbloemenkamp8532

11 ай бұрын

In principle content creators should not put copyrighted work in their videos before making sure the copyright-holders are accepting it, either freely or through a licence. The system of putting copyrighted material without contacting the owner and then waiting for a copyright claim from the owner is already a bit dodgy. That being said, I think so far this new problem was not recognized by YT, but I expect they will act soon on this, because creators are the basis of their platform. They could start by exposing much more information about the claiming party. An obligatory deposit on making a claim could also work. The deposit only being refunded if the claim is found legit. YT clearly needs to handle this in a mostly automated way, if not it will be too expensive to deal with. After several false claims the scammers could potentially be blacklisted if for the claim the real name and unique ID-data are required and verified.

@InventorZahran

11 ай бұрын

@@richardbloemenkamp8532 Have you forgotten that Fair Use exists? There are some cases when it is completely legal to use copyrighted material as part of a larger work, and those uses should not be punished since they aren't breaking any laws.

@markstevens1729

11 ай бұрын

@@InventorZahran you obviously haven’t heard of Irving Azoff.

@MrRFasters

11 ай бұрын

There should be consequences for not fact checking but automatic relaying claims - true or false. Its opening doors to fraud backed by the KZread brand.

@officialWWM

11 ай бұрын

There are.

Paul being so calm about all this is crazy. I’m not even involved in the slightest and my blood boiled.

@tronlady1

11 ай бұрын

He obviously took it all out of that incredible trippy guitar set up 😂

@jacobsmith1877

11 ай бұрын

Dude I hear you. This type of stuff makes me so ridiculously angry.

@MelodyMaker

11 ай бұрын

It's apparent that Paul has a success formula at work. Within, is the capacity to focus objectively and intently while harnessing detrimental emotion. Easier said than done.

@manny2092

11 ай бұрын

I know...the man has ice running in his veins...hehehe....

@diatonicdelirium1743

11 ай бұрын

I guess Paul was really calm after he smashed one guitar ;)

Paul. I am an intellectual property lawyer. My company is trying to challenge the KZread copyright policy as being unfair. We are planning to use a class action to do this. There are many legal complications but basically the system as it is now is unfair to content creators. If you could find the time to speak for just a few minutes it would be helpful. What you are talking about in this video is new to me. Now, we have fake claims on top of claims by the actual owner of the rights. Anyway, you have always been my favorite guitar channel and I would appreciate it if you could speak to me.

@unclemarkscigarboxguitarlesson

11 ай бұрын

As a content creator (guitar lessons) I am all donation channel and don’t monetize. This happens all the time. It’s really BS. Cheers, Uncle Mark

@royboy84

11 ай бұрын

I received a copyright strike for performing Beethoven (obviously public domain) on a synthesizer.

@r.rodriguez4991

11 ай бұрын

​@@royboy84Clearly that belongs to some rapper somewhere.

@glitch-pr3nr

11 ай бұрын

I actually heard bars of an Amy winehouse song in some new content creators song.

@Frodojack

11 ай бұрын

@@murdo_mck Look up John T. Meli, Jr. He's an intellectual property attorney out of Delaware and Pennsylvania. He's legit.

I had a guy download my most popular analysis video, cut out the performance segment of that video, upload the audio to Spotify and then claim my video with it. Thanks for shining a spotlight on this. I hope KZread will continue to address it.

@SuperOhdannyboy

11 ай бұрын

That is awfulness

@KubaJurczak

11 ай бұрын

Josh I have the same problem... What happened later?

@JoshWalshMusic

11 ай бұрын

@@KubaJurczak I challenged the copyright claim, and they didn’t counter. There wasn’t any way I could find to file for abuse of DMCA.

@KubaJurczak

11 ай бұрын

@@JoshWalshMusic such an absurd.... :( Thank you for the answer Josh! :)

@mikeelek9713

10 ай бұрын

There are just far too many terrible people.

KZread needs to work harder to protect the legitimate content providers. These scammers are slime.

@crazy8boy145

9 ай бұрын

KZread’s probably in on the scams, no one realizes the real scammers are youtube bro.

This happens to me A LOT. Sometimes it's not even the same song, I get a claim from a random Korean song that has nothing to do with the song I played. Of course they keep rejecting every appeal I make. I spoke to KZread support about this saying how this system is not working properly since the final decision is still being made by the same people that made the claim in the first place, so it's kinda pointless to appeal. KZread response was "We are sorry but that's how it works" so I don't even see hope for the near future but this need to be fixed somehow...

@NedJeffery

11 ай бұрын

I believe the reason that's just "how it works" is because the process is literally written into US law. It's not KZread's fault. It's a committee of entirely ignorant politicians working at the behest of large-scale copyright holders to maximise their income.

@nedim_guitar

11 ай бұрын

That's fucked up! YT doesn't give a shit as long as they can milk money into their own company.

@rockerbuck967

11 ай бұрын

This why some content creators I know went to Odyesee. Not the same level of BS - but then again, not as many eyes on it.

@pedroalves5634

11 ай бұрын

I believe this will be fixed by a new platform that will obliterate youtube. That is normally the case with tech products.

@michaelt2842

11 ай бұрын

@@pedroalves5634 Yes, and soon please.

Kmac went into hiatus, because some random guy uploaded the full royalty music and copyright claimed him. It's more and more common to see these copyright abusers, comment scammers, crypto hackers, and KZread doesn't seem to be able to safeguard their content creator, or viewers.

@mk_rexx

11 ай бұрын

Not just any royalty free music, but literally KZread Premiere's countdown music. Those obnoxious nuggets of moist dung.

@victorgomez3401

11 ай бұрын

KZread doesn't seem to care*

@SaburoOkita

11 ай бұрын

@@victorgomez3401 *KZread doesn't care

@LaneOhno

11 ай бұрын

What are the chances those claims were made by KZread's own troll accounts, trying to scam money out of content creators without whom it won't even got to where it is now.

@xenophonjumana4459

11 ай бұрын

What are the chances those claims were made by KZread's own troll accounts, trying to scam money out of content creators without whom it won't even got to where it is now.

This happened also to Kmac2021. It was so bad to the point he took a break from KZread because he didn't want to deal with the broken copyright system.

@PaulDavids

11 ай бұрын

It's really affecting more people that anyone might imagine. It's why we need to address it!

@Upside_Down_Guitar_Guy

11 ай бұрын

I just saw that video, too. It was a troll account but they managed to put a strike on his channel

@instrumentenfreak

11 ай бұрын

@@ambientpicking There are people who got striked because of wind noise. You can not avoid those scams by following the rules.

@sunegroennebaek5283

11 ай бұрын

⁠​⁠@Dave G There are no original music. It’s all variations of centuries of the same 12 notes. Even your oven bending-KZread-video is for sure strongly inspired of another song. How difficult do you think learning guitar/music would be if you could not learn from songs you already now? These copyright rules kills culture and music altogether. I really don’t understand where you are coming from…..

@anonjr

11 ай бұрын

@Dave G I was using material from KZread's content creator's library - and had that struck by someone who had re-uploaded it under another name.

Back in the day I published dozens of videos to YT and one by one they got monotized by copyright trolls, so one by one I removed them. In a classic case, I used public domain music that was being claimed by a company that makes money by running public domain works thru noise reduction. In that case, the company revoked the claim when I linked to the original. It's freaky that YT is just software. The Content ID algorithm triggers the claimant algorithm which triggers the claim algorithm. There are no people. There is no discussion

This has been happening to me for years. The trick is, when you dispute it, don't word it nicely. Use lots of scary legal words and make it very clear that you know what they're doing is illegal. I've disputed dozens of claims this way and never had one rejected.

@PianoVampire

11 ай бұрын

Same here. I normally put in - filing an inaccurate copyright claim is a criminal offence under the DMCA act - remove your claim immediately - no problems after that.

@nickgreen4731

11 ай бұрын

What a neat tip. They're using scare tactics; logically, their own weapon should work against them.

@InYourDreams-Andia

11 ай бұрын

​@@PianoVampire good call! Like this method.

@WatanabeNoTsuna.

10 ай бұрын

Some lawyer should make a response template for everyone to use.

@InYourDreams-Andia

10 ай бұрын

@@WatanabeNoTsuna. this!

I've received a copyright claim for a video with just the field recording of the sea waves. Two times from different companies... the original sound of the sea. It's crazy! How could they own the sound of the sea?

@tungtobak

11 ай бұрын

Poseidon getting into copyright grifting these days huh?

@PerryFrank

11 ай бұрын

@@tungtobak 😂😂

@piotr433

11 ай бұрын

Lol I've just got a copyright claim for a 36 seconds long fragment of a metro tunnel I shot through the train's windscreen in Paris. From three companies at once. Needless to say, my dispute was rejected.

KZread doesn’t want to know what they do wrong. That’s the whole problem. They don’t care about claims, they don’t care about ads, they only care about their money, so they don’t give you the useful options to actually remedy things.

@kesamek8537

11 ай бұрын

If you think everything is about money, you might be American.

@rpntfrndisnr1879

11 ай бұрын

​@@kesamek8537 If you believe that......

@terrybanks5063

11 ай бұрын

youre dead right rob./end of. kesa, youre a fool if you think only americans think everything is about money. travel the world before making these bold, idiotic claims.

@jrrarglblarg9241

11 ай бұрын

@@kesamek8537 In capitalism everything IS about the money, American or not. What motive would you ascribe?

@LetBBB6345789

11 ай бұрын

@@kesamek8537 KZread is...

So glad that you and Rick Beato are speaking up about these type of topics, good job and great video as always!

@JeremiahHartmanPhotography

11 ай бұрын

Right? What this channel and Beato's does for some of these artists is amazing..they drive a lot of traffic (and download sales) to the original artist. But you have Don Henley of the Eagles paying a team to track down EVERY cover, song break down, instructional video to take them down...and other record labels do it too. It's baffling. Especially when Leland Sklar (famous session bassist) was getting nailed by the label for his video's showing how he wrote the bass parts for a lot of James Taylor..I think even James taylor couldn't do anything about it because he sold the rights to his catalog..but both of them were baffled at why the label wouldn't even allow a video of a person that wrote the song to break it down. The Music Industry is desperate now for money...which is driving all of this.

@TheGuitologist

11 ай бұрын

hahahahahahah! This is hilarious.

@JimMorrisonsBathtub

11 ай бұрын

I'm not so glad Rick Beato is speaking up about this topic because he's telling everyone to just accept every claim even when the claims are bullshit which is exactly why these copyright scams happen

@sanmarinyo

11 ай бұрын

@@JimMorrisonsBathtub Oh really? I didn’t get that impression but that’s a cool perspective!

@diatonicdelirium1743

11 ай бұрын

@@JimMorrisonsBathtub Rick doesn't fight the system so hard, but he does speak up about it every time and places more focus on the core of completely blocking the reuse of music. Everyone must fight in their own way, and bigger channels help a lot.

I previously had 3 claims against my videos for background music that I licensed. The claims came from someone that did a cover that used the music in the background. Very similar, claimed by someone that did a cover of music I had licensed. There should be a system for this to easily dispute this. Just an easy way to respond with "Claimant is not the artist and doesn't hold copyright" or something like that.

I work in the healthcare industry and used to think my profession was singled out and unduly prosecuted by burdening regulation and threats of legal action. That is until my friend, a general contractor and another, a banker told me of their regulations and risks. later as a business owner, I realized how widespread the problem was. There are wolves in every direction wanting to take what you have built. I wish I could help you, Paul. I am available for moral support. I do love you and your channel and very much appreciate you if it means anything.

This was happening on my channel as well. The copyright claim was for music on a video that had absolutely no music in it. It's scammers using the KZread systems to make easy money as you explain. Years ago now there was a fairly big scam with royalty free CC music by Kevin MacLeod that was being claimed by a publishing company who claimed to own the music. Of course they had no rights over the music. These scams reveal the weakness and many holes on the 'claim' side of copyright on KZread, and what aggravates this is simple. KZread just wash their hands of copyright on the site. No wonder the scammers have a field day making really easy money on a huge scale for essentially doing nothing other than running a robotic scam. I've been on KZread since 2007, had many copyright battles and it's always incredible how my Partner here provides zero assistance and seem to ignore how easily their system can be manipulated by organised crime. Sadly your story here is nothing new, it's just the ugly truth of how Producers are treated like rubbish here.

I've gotten several of these strikes on my original renditions of Traditional songs (that no one owns.) The disputes have settled in my favor so far, but it's incredibly frustrating and certainly smells of scamming. YT has become an abusive platform, or at the least it seems to have enabled abusers. I hope this can change.

How did you keep me engaged for nearly 10 minutes talking about copyright infringement? I 100% agree but im just suprised I didn't switch off. You are a great orator.

As a law student and musician myself, I'm researching about the application of copyright laws on intermediary platforms (which include social media platforms). There is nothing wonky about your experience being wonky. My article is in its final stages and hopefully it gets published and catalyses the conversation in the legal realm too :) In the meantime, power to you Paul. Been watching your videos since 2018, at least. Love your work so much.

@TUUK2006

11 ай бұрын

No way any small time lawyers are changing this shit. It's going to take a multi-billion dollar legal battle at the highest legal level to even being to change this.

@ABHthepicurious

11 ай бұрын

Would be interesting to read your article if you share it publicly! Please, let us know if you do and my best wishes for you to succeed in completing your article

@FroznColors

11 ай бұрын

@@ABHthepicurious thanks! I'll share it here once published :)

@ABHthepicurious

11 ай бұрын

@@FroznColors Great! Will look forward to it :D

KZread needs to get their sh!t together! The best content creators are being wiped-out from these con-artists.

I have a much smaller channel than you (only 50,000 subscribers) and this is happening to me too. It seems to be widespread. What is most concerning is that KZread won’t adjudicate or mediate that matters. Apparently that would be too expensive to assign such resources. I’m really hoping that someone like you (with a huge channel) can make a difference by making these videos

@thoth_amon

11 ай бұрын

you been having problems also?, been watching some of this stupid mess effect music channels for years, it's absurd that youtube hasn't done anything about it, so lame, the crooks, criminals and scumbags win again

@OneChartguitarlessons

10 ай бұрын

Hey mate, I have an even smaller channel than you, and wondered, how did you deal with the copyright issue for selling your tabs? I'm trying to figure out the best way going forward to do the right thing and would love to know your approach. Thanks, Matt.

Wow. This is absolutely ridiculous. Hope that they can get a handle on this.

Ironically one could argue that a cover of a song is less transformative than a video analyzing the original song.

@eMysterium

11 ай бұрын

Exactly.

@councilofgiants1031

11 ай бұрын

Except... It's not. It's for educational purposes and is clearly fair use. You could argue... But you wouldn't win. I'm still waiting for a truckload of creators to get their shite together, get organized and start suing. It would only take one class action lawsuit.

@jaymz_rg1003

11 ай бұрын

​@@councilofgiants1031 I agree, but I'd argue that covers are both educational (because you're essentially teaching others how to play something) and transformative because you're adding something new (your own track) to the original work. KZread and labels are getting way out of hand with copyright striking so much. It's one thing to strike down a full song or episode/movie that's been uploaded, but clips of them for reviews and analysis or something that has been added over? Come on. They're just being petty.

@Sperzel

11 ай бұрын

@@jaymz_rg1003 to be clear, KZread are not copystriking anyone. But by law they have to have a system in place to facilitate that or they’d get sued on the daily. It’s the parasites making bs claims we should be angry at imo

Just WOW! Is there no limit to the depths that some slimy people will go to creatively figure out how to steal money?

@Timberwolf69

11 ай бұрын

Just imagine what they could achieve if they would use this creativity in a more productive way...

@maxm6931

11 ай бұрын

@@Timberwolf69 They would probably detonate ATM machines

@Timberwolf69

11 ай бұрын

@@maxm6931 That's not very creative.

@28th_St_Air

11 ай бұрын

What’s even more disappointing is how the second he got rid of one slime ball, there was another right there to take it’s place.

@Timberwolf69

11 ай бұрын

@@28th_St_Air I am pretty sure that it was the same entity.

Until there are consequences for people making false claims this and other types of copyright abuse are going to keep happening. It's a very awful experience, and KZread really needs to fix it.

KZread has had a massive problem with their claim system for as long as I can remember. It's crazy that they haven't solved this yet

I just happened across your video. I enter *Public Domain* works (i.e., Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, etc.) to create accompaniments so people can play the classics. I am not monetized yet, but I wanted to share that I regularly see copyright claims on these works. Annoyed that someone would try to claim copyright on Mozart's original work, I disputed some. I never hear back from KZread.

This has been happening to me aswell. I used a song by the OG artist with their blessing. A rapper has used their song and then tried claiming copy write. I contacted the OG artist, she wasn’t aware this rapper had ‘sampled’ her track, never mind attempting to claim ownership of it.

Thank you for posting this video and being transparent about your struggles as a content creator. I'm sure I'm not the only person watching who is grateful for your content!

This exact thing happened to me recently with someone stealing a ton of my covers, uploading them to Spotify/other services and claiming all my youtube uploads, taking 100% of the revenue. This person is not just stealing covers from me either, but seemingly other artists with his quickly growing Spotify scam page.

I've SO glad to see you cover this issue! I've seen this too, my Jeff Beck video back in January I played the theme of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" and immediately (before the HD version had finished processing) got what had to be an automated a strike from a company claiming for, yes, a cover! First, I checked the appropriate databases for the identity of the REAL copyright owners, and I of course appealed and included my suspicions and the waited a month and nothing happened and all is well. But they really need to address the problem.

Sorry to hear this is happening to you. Thanks for shining a light on these scams.

I love the jam you did throughout this video, it felt chaotic and existential, really suits the content of the video. Would love to hear the full thing!

@matthewf1979

11 ай бұрын

It’ll get claimed by some copyright troll, too.

This happens in the weirdest ways sometimes. I was watching a guy who was doing a retrospective on the Playstation 1 and it's accessories. He decided to show a clip of the Playstation 1 start up sound (which is honestly amazing). When he was playing the clip he had the audio removed and text over the screen saying he had to mute it because it was getting copyright claimed by a rapper who sampled the start up sound in his song. I've seen a lot of people get hit with copyright claims when they were playing old games because the old games used stock sound effect screams or noises that someone used in a song too. It's a bit out of control.

Truly the Wild West with no rationale. Must be exhausting and frustrating to keep up with this nonsense. You are a very patient person.

Thank you for bringing this to light. I accuse KZread/Google/Alphabet for having major issues with their system and not fixing it. The movie Brazil is prescient in describing what we shall all face.

Thanks for explaining this Paul in context, it's annoying when this kinda stuff happens but I'm glad you have your awesome guitar and editing skills to make it right 💪🏻😁

I've got this problem with someone claiming copyright on a two hundred year old song we recorded. And exactly the same issue - what if I lose my video, get a strike, lose my channel. I didn't take it to the next level.

Yup, I've got videos where the original artist of the song I played didn't claim the video but some loser that did a cover of that song did. It's insane.

That copyright system sucks. I just had a video blocked that I put some hours of work into. That sucks so hard. Stupid people dont recognize its free advertising.

@ehiebert1297

11 ай бұрын

The copyright system is crazy, when I hear something new and it is a cover or a fair use, I go and look up the original and watch that. There are many songs on my play list that where found because someone else played it on there video.

@Gaslight.Guitar

11 ай бұрын

@@ehiebert1297 absolutely man. I agree.

@Timberwolf69

11 ай бұрын

@@ehiebert1297 Same here. Found some real gems thanks to people covering these songs.

@pinobluevogel6458

11 ай бұрын

@@ehiebert1297 Exactly that. My favorite cover band plays all kinds of stuff I never would have even known if they didn't upload it to their channel. Yes, some of it is modern pop that I would never play the original of, but also some great older music that I missed because it was before my time. (Fleetwood Mac for example, which I also discovered through Paul's channel, they owe him some money for sure now) We should also not underestimate the power and importance of people who are pre-selecting the better stuff from the rest. Without my movie channels, I would rarely, if ever, be enticed to go to the movies at all. The risk of it being a waste of time and money is very high. Same goes for music, a good radio DJ, or music enthousiast with a good youtube channel can find gems which are hard to find with the millions of songs that are out there.

KZread need to be more accountable and keep track of the fraudulent claimants, Black list them and their Data for re-joining under a different profile.

Thank you for speaking up on all of our behalf! I hope this issue gets remedied asap, maybe with all of us making a fuss about it the needle might move

One of the biggest reasons why I have been hesitant on starting to make covers, copyright law is so ambiguous, it's like prospecting claims back in the gold rush era... there has to be a better way to keep it all from all going the way of the scammers. Paul, your videos have been such a treat to watch and the level of your analysis and your video quality is just amazing. Thank you for your hard work, there are a lot of better guitarists because of it, me included. Have a great day (not stealing your closing line).

This is very good! And things will only change if people speak up and fight the madness. Thanks for sharing this.

Thank you Paul, for talking about this and bringing more attention to it. Your music and videos are always excellent. The topic of this video drives me crazy; I hope you get all the views and that someday significant progress can be made with YT’s policies.

One of my early videos had a claim based on someone's shaking pill box ASMR, claiming infringement when I broke some leaves in Minecraft. I wrote to them explaining that if they believe the sound effect infringes on their recording they should take it up with Mojang and Microsoft. The released the claim fairly quickly. I don't think I've had a claim since.

It gets even worse when you get into classical music--KZread's _own algorithm_ appears to be able to copyright-detect any intermediate piano student's amateur performance of, say, a piano piece by Beethoven or Mozart (clearly in the public domain) because of detected similarities to some famous concert pianist's copyrighted recording of the same piece. Almost like they're playing a style of music that's intended to be played _exactly as written_ with only subtle differences in interpretation. I've never done an online recital, but many other piano teachers have, and some have complained of KZread ruining the videos submitted by their students.

Paul, not only do you provide some of the best guitar instructional and analytical content on KZread, but your videos are among the most aesthetically impressive -- from video production to your acting and humor. It is so unfair to see a craftsman performing at the highest levels and being a good-faith participant in this platform, only to see someone else pirating your earnings. It's a tick on a dog. It's monetized social media vampirism. It's . . . theft. Perhaps you can be a leader in getting this reconciled. It's obvious that a balancing point always must be found between the original copyright holder and a fair-use employer of the subject matter's content, but with a way to keep the ticks from getting on one dog or the other. Best of luck.

Thank you, Paul, for sharing your hard-earned knowledge.

Thank you for doing this Paul! My main channel has a small amount of subscribers, and this kept happening to me, and I had no way to fight it.

Yep I have had this too a few times. I challenged and the other party backed down. I don't understand how the YT system favours any claimant without investigation and then make it so difficult for the accused to get anything changed.

Thanks for making this video and sharing what you’ve learned for the rest of us trying to avoid the pitfalls of KZread

keep on fighting man. We appreciate you fighting. This combined with people making negative comments are the big unpleasant things. Rage against the scammers. How is it that google can't figure something out? They are crazy to risk their value in this way

even a video about copyright claims is so well edited and captivating (awesome ambiental guitar music included). how are you this talented man?

I know of at least 3 channels with 500k-1 million subscribers running copyright scams. What they do is download public domain or CC0 videos. They digitally restore, upscale them, and do some slight edits. They now have copyright to the restored upscaled video. They post the video for monetization on their channel, upload it to internet archives, and other large video library repositories showing it's copyrighted. They then start doing copyright claims on all channels that have the original still public domain video making it non existent. So now the only way to watch the content is through their monetized channel.

While I’m not up to speed on this issue enough to have a position re KZread’s responsibility to police copyright issues; I think they should have some similar system of strikes for entities filing false claims. Perhaps too complex but they owe it to their content creators to provide some kind of protection on their platform.

It sucks that that’s what you have to deal with and spend instead of creating more material. Love your channel.

Well said Paul. I get pinged all the time for copyright. It’s important large channels like yourself speak out, your voice may be listened to. Tiny channels have no voice but we can and will support your message.

I'd love to upload original content, but there are scammers that just comb the internet looking for ANYTHING not published, so they can take ownership of any revenue. This has also become an issue on Tictok. You have to to get EVERYTHING published, even just an improvisational jam, even a video that may not even have music. KZread has only made this WORSE! Just a giant middle finger to the mass of content creators keeping the platform alive.

These people are disgusting and will not stop if KZread does nothing. This is 100% KZread's responsibility now. Trying to appeal to the moral values of these trolls is useless. KZread DO YOUR JOB.

Paul, you are an excellent content creator and a great guitar player… really enjoy all your videos! Keep up the good work!

I'm glad you are bringing this to everyone's attention. There are clearly problems to be addressed here.

It sucks how widespread this has become, when it shouldn't be a problem to begin with. It must be scary to run the risk of getting shut down because of claims coming every conceivable direction, reasonable or not. The more that bring up the issue, the better \m/

Thanks for this, very enlightening. I teach Intellectual Property to entrepreneurship students at Wharton, and I hope to talk about some of your experiences and your insights in my classes next year.

We are a Minecraft content creator and as soon as we reached the stage of monetization every single time we left the Minecraft music in a video we were getting hit with claims from everyone but the artist (C418) who along with Minecraft allow the use of the music in MC videos. As a small creator, it is not worth the time and trouble to dispute these even though we won each dispute. We have had to completely stop using Minecraft music in our videos for this exact reason. It's a shame and a blatant abuse of the system. I don't understand how there aren't repercussions for these people abusing the system or how KZread as big as they are....are continuing to allow it. Great video touching on this topic!

Had a chat once with Art Munson, and I recognized his name as being one of the members of Dick Dale and the Deltones. Cool guy, very insightful regarding the music business, and very humble.

This is so annoying and why I so rarely play other artist's songs in videos, as much fun as that would be. I took down a Nirvana Short because it was claimed by some Brazilian publishing company. I wasn't monetized at the time so I didn't want to deal with it. Hopefully KZread will fix this situation.

If they implemented a way of punishing false claims, it would probably go a long way to solving this. I get why the burden is put on the creator to show it's not copyright, and that's fine to stay. However if you appeal and win, the party who falsely claimed it should be charged some money or if they do it X number of times they should lose the ability to claim things just like how too many strikes can get your channel removed.

This reminds me of what happened a few years ago when early podcasters got hit with a lawsuit because some jerk patented a very ambiguous definition of an audio broadcasting format that he used to blackmail successful podcasters. WTF with Marc Maron was a vocal opponent of this audio scam.

Great video Paul. I believe we talked about this when you were at my place. I will do a very basic bluegrass jam along track - just G, C and D in a very standard arrangement for example. I'll track a couple of guitars (Martin on the left, Gibson on the right) and a midi upright bass for about ten minutes so the listener has time to get "in the zone". No melodies, just strumming chords. Every single time I know I'll have to wait 30 days before I can make it public so I can fight the myriad of, I believe, bot driven ridiculous copyright claims. Usually they don't respond so KZread removes the claim after 30 days. I fight them every time though because I think these companies know that most won't fight the claims and they can get the revenue from those videos. Frustrating. At some point I hope Google starts to remove these accounts.

These copyright trolls are getting insane... I used to make videos before knowing there were actual trolls and in good faith, I just accepted the claim and went on with my life. Until at one point I was certain I was doing nothing wrong, since I was using copyright free music and sound effects. So I started appealing. Lost my channel because of it and I still don't think it was for good reason, since I've neve touched copyrighted music 😢

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that these counterfeit copyright claims could be AI-generated. Love your work Paul. You and all of the wonderful KZread creators who are the victims of these scams deserve better than this!

@nickgreen4731

11 ай бұрын

Excellent point. Basically, whereever there is money to be made, some scammer will try to exploit the loopholes in bulk.

@SeadartVSG

11 ай бұрын

Yes, the timing and method of operation would fit very well with an AI backed system for filing claims. It can create thousands in a fishing exercise and collect on the few that filter through the process.

I feel your frustration. I work in web and marketing, and I've noticed a large increase in copyright claims in recent years, all coming through umbrella representative companies that have sprung up out of nowhere and have their headquarters in tax havens.. demand for money, threats of prosecution, etc. Now, I have no issue at all with supporting the authors and artists, but these companies operate in a shady way, paying little if anything to the actual copyright owners, and every single time myself or one of our clients has crossed paths with them (so far), the copyright claim was found to be invalid for one reason or another (usually because we had a valid license), wasting serious time having to deal with them. They're ambulance chasers, bleeding the system while not actually protecting the people they claim to. There needs to be some penalty for making fraudulent claims.

Yes! I've also received some suspicious copyright claims, one for a piece of music I used out of the KZread Audio Library--and it said "no copyright" in the title! I appealed it and my claim was rejected.

Upvote this video, everybody. This needs to get through to the KZread superiors.

@TUUK2006

11 ай бұрын

This video won't change a damn thing. I promise that. He's FAR from the first or biggest channel to shine a light on this issue.

Sadly, you are not the only one I have heard of this happening to. Paul Barton (Pianist who plays for elephants) has a 8-year-old daughter who played an original song (written just for her) that was claimed for copyright. He posted a video showcasing his fight to reclaim his video.

I’m about as small of a creator you can get. Subscriptions in the teens with 200 views on my most viewed video. I mostly do covers and one (Amerika by Young the Giant) got copyright claimed and I have no idea why. I legitimately listed in parenthesis that it was an acoustic Young the Giant cover and I even put a link to their channel in the damn title as well. I don’t understand how this system got so broken, but it definitely needs to be fixed because this affects everyone. Big creators and small creators alike, it only hurts us when all we want to do is share music with each other.

Thanks for your hardworking. Hopefully, everything will be okay on your channel.

Paul, I just want say thank you for all your hard work to equip musicians globally. Your style is always entertaining, and personally, I consistently take away so much from your lessons and pointers. Regarding what you mentioned in this video, I also have dealt with similar things with an organization I worked for. I purchased fully licensed tracks, obtained the creator's full permission and still KZread flagged the music for breach of copyright. Have you considered ditching KZread and transferring your content to your own website? Corridor Digital have done this with great success. I personally would gladly pay for a subscription for your services. Lately, KZread have proved themselves to be bullies and tyrants to people who are just trying to make an honest living. Thanks again and don't let them push you around. :)

The fault lies with KZread but they won’t fix it, nor address it and so your content will continue to exist at the whim of the algorithm.

Yes!!! Thanks Paul for bringing up this scam. I've ran into this copyright problem multiple times. I had a copyright claim against a performance of Bach's Cello Suite in G (a piece old enough to be totally outside of any copyright). It said I was covering a piece by Yo Yo Ma!! The company making the claim seemed to be a third party business making claims on behalf of multiple record companies. I instantly came to the same conclusion that this is a scam. I removed the performance and re-uploaded. I still haven't had a claim against the new upload. I then checked an old performance I'd done about 10 years ago. That one had another claim I'd not seen. This time it made the claim on behalf of John Patitucci! Again, it's a Bach piece. Not a 'cover'. I then had a claim against a lesson working around the chord progression from Misty. There is no melody included and I simply used a simple band-in-a-box track in order to show some examples of ballad bass line creation. The claim says that I've made use of the 'melody' from Misty. In all three cases the claims were made by a third party company. Not a publishing company. I still share revenue for the 'John Patitucci cover' and Misty. I don't think it's necessarily a scam conjured up by the publishing companies. I think the publishing companies are outsourcing the hunt for copyright infringement because it's way too much work to undertake alone. I'm guessing these third parties take a cut of the shared revenue so it's in their interest to throw claims at as many videos as possible. Very few KZreadrs will want to take a chance on getting taken down so they are able to make a LOT of revenue with total impunity. Thank you Paul for shining a light on this problem

@ASDPOWER

11 ай бұрын

I would agree with your assessment 100% the business model for stealing artists music has gone now they have fewer ways to get revenue in a tight market where people can self publish direct to their fanbase.

What's also terrible about this system is songs getting claimed when it is your own song. Like if I were to do a playthrough of a song I wrote, it could get claimed or taken down by someone else just because this system is broken.

As a new KZreadr in the making, and probably many others as well, this is quite off-putting. It makes me feel less confident of KZread as a stable platform to advance on. Hope they managed to address this issue soon. Thanks for addressing this, it brings perspective of coming problems to people like us who are just starting out. Cheers!

An easy solution would be, if you file a dispute and it is accepted, then the "copyright holder" that failed in their claim against you should receive a strike against *them*. If you can be shut down for false claims, so should those who make false claims against you.

@paulsto6516

11 ай бұрын

Except, You Tube doesn't care.

@ClaudioBrogliato

11 ай бұрын

They don't have a channel to defend, they'd try and if they got blocked they would open another channel.

@diatonicdelirium1743

11 ай бұрын

@@ClaudioBrogliato but... in order to make some claim, there has to be some physical person/company behind it (YT should demand that). Every claim should also carry a reasonable deposit that is forfeit in case of a false claim or retraction of the claim. I'm certain that this will not go on long if the claimant has something to lose each and every time, plus a strike system on the person/company for repeat offenses.

Hi Paul, Thank you for talking about this problem. Several years ago, for my videos, I used to do the music myself, using apple loops from logic pro and my own stuff (a bit of guitar, bass or piano). For almost all these videos I had complaints... And I had to fight every claim... And very often I lost, even though apple loops are royalty-free. Now I pay an online music service for peace of mind.

The system is totally broken! KZread need to step up and take care of this

Very classy video!! This is how it is done. Other big time KZreadrs could take advantage of watching this instead of their heated rants like petulant children crying because someone took their pacifier away! Great job, I really respect you and your content!

KZread claims have been laughable for years. Crazy

i got the same problem with this bs copyright issues all the time. so unfair and totally unacceptable.

Preach the word. This nonsense is completely out of hand. Scammers and people trying to take advantage of people who are actually producing content are using/abusing the system for their own monetary gain. It's out of control and senseless. Perhaps another reason everyone needs to ditch KZread and move over to Rumble in a mass exodus.

They probably program this phenomenon to happen on purpose because if you don't get paid, they keep it.

Hi Paul, greetings from Australia. you have a great channel. i hope you read all your comments, including mine. Here;s the story: I rearranged the main title from the 1963 film Cleopatra, by Alex North. being in Australia my channel doesn't really get high view counts, but i don't mind that. well, to my amazement Cleopatra went viral (for me) stopping at 27,000 views. of course i got a 3rd party copyright claim. par for the course, of course. then i twigged. the pubkisher of the work - a company in New York - had been made aware of it and asked YT to push it so they could take the royalities from views. there are no other versions of this on YT - too complex a piece of music for most to waste time on recreating - so mine was singled out to be pushed. the YT system is flawed and corrupt. j.

Well spoken and shared. Eloquently put. Well done and thanks 👍

So glad someone's talking about this stuff

Just got hit with a copyright on my sir duke cover. It's definitely a fair claim. It's still just sad cause i'd love to make more covers, but there unfortunately isn't much of an incentive unless i'm really feeling motivated. Great video, as always, my friend!

@nedim_guitar

11 ай бұрын

That's fucked up, because a cover is a cover, it's fair use and at least it's about sharing revenue.

@MattGOG666

11 ай бұрын

​@Nedim K (nedomedo) i agree. Labels are gonna be labels and not want people profiting off their stuff unless they profit first, which spits in the face of fair use most of the time.

They can only abuse the copyright *system* because the copyright *laws* are so stupid. The laws are the root cause. Copyright started out at "12 years" and is now at "life time of the creator + 75 years" So if Bob Dylan were to die this year his song Like A Rollin' Stone will be copyright protected until 2098. Mind you, it was written in 1965. This is complete madness!

Thanks, Paul. YT really needs to figure this out if they want their platform to succeed. I watch you and Rick Beato a lot, and both of you have struggled with some of these issues. I'm sure it's not an easy thing to manage given the millions of vids being posted but it is very much in YT's interest to resolve unless, like some of the cover and karaoke posts, YT cares only about making a quick buck.

I see this issue raised so very much. Rick Beato speak greatly about it too, many of his videos are copyrighted…. And he is teaching music, much like your good self.

youtube is strangling itself... Don't know how you (and other fantastic people like Rick Beato) keep the courage to carry on this way with all this chaotic sh*t. Maybe if I would be one of those conspiracy theorists I could think AI has got something to do with it because that's just about as crazy as it gets but anyway, for what its worth: I'm with you! Thanks for all the great stuff you post. Cheers to you, Paul!