Jim Class 2: Let's Understand Copyrights!

[ebutsol]

Thankyou! very informative,the video is very wel put together,but the background music is a little loud, just in case you plan to make any more of this important video.

[NikosDragan]

Thank you for the info.

[DarkOceanFilms]

SWEET-O. That helped alot.

[quanyin04]

Very informative. I am thanking my lucky stars I found your videos.

[JakAndKeiraFan]

Thanks for the explanations, but there are two situations in which I'm not sure how copyrights come into play: 1) making a music video with a copyrighted song and clips of a copyrighted movie, show, or video game, and 2) taping oneself singing a copyrighted song, with or without instrumentals.

[somecallmejim]

Playing a copyrighted song to video requires a synchronization license, and taping oneself singing would require the same, and likely a performance license. If you're only using clips of a song or video, that might qualify as fair use, but if you do the whole song or video, you have to pay to use it. That'll be at a minimum about $250. Hope that helps!

[JakAndKeiraFan]

Thanks, that's good to know. I don't have that kind of money though, so I guess if I ever make a video like that, it'll have to be for my own enjoyment and not something I can distribute or upload.

[thechickchannel]

Jim.... this chicky Loves ya.... thank you for all your help- I'm in the process of making a vid response to ya....

-spygrrl

[paraparanormal]

great video now i really understand it I did not have any ideaa thats how the laws were thanks

[nardelliwwespidey]

hey jim i hope you can respond but i just signed up for a directer account but can i get if ive gone agianst terms of violation because i have and im dying to get a directer account thx c ya peace

[Abbey7]

WOW Jim! This is EXACTLY what I needed! Awesome vid and I really like the "beam me up Scotty" effect!

[somecallmejim]

Excellent! I wondered if anyone would pick up on my geek-induced Star Trek intro :-D

If you edit with Sony Vegas it's a really easy effect to pull off, too. :-)

[Masterecords]

u the man

[somecallmejim]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it! :-D

[turnermedman]

very useful vid Jim. i just wonder weather which laws are the same here in England?

[blockster911]

Great video Jim, from a new subscriber. I was hoping you would touch on "covering" a popular song by playing and singing it yourself on YouTube as an amateur with no profit motive like so many people do. I'm planning to do that myself. -Don

[somecallmejim]

Thanks for subscribing! :-)

Covering a song is one of those "really grey areas" of the law. You are transforming it, and the nature of the material used is okay, so for the first two factors, you're fine. The problem comes in the amount being used, and potentially the market impact. If you play a full song, you could have issues, and if your version is good enough that people can listen to yours for free as opposed to paying for the real copy.

Hope that helps! :-)

[blockster911]

It does, thanks! I suspected that it would be something like that. So if I ever do that, I had better plan on sucking at it. :)

[somecallmejim]

Well, if you let me be a part of it, I can guarantee you it'll suck something awful! :-D

Later :-)

[insaneshayne]

Thank you Jimbo...You know I never asked you if I could use that clip of you that I put on Youtube Guide. Um, we're cool right? This video wasn't directed toward me was it? J/K of course.

No, but great video. Learned so much. Thanks!

Oh and thank you so much for Jamendo com!

[somecallmejim]

Yep, now my lawyers are on their way! Doom! Mwah ha h-cough-er, um, no worries! :-D

Jamendo is awesome. The only downside is having to use bittorrent to download anything, but it's usually fast, so I don't mind.

[insaneshayne]

I love bittorrent! LOVE IT! :)

[preacherman777]

You're a wealth of great information, Jim. I think is a video that the You Tube community really needed. Thanks.

[somecallmejim]

Well thanks preacherman. I really appreciate it. I just hope is serves a positive purpose. :-)

[robbylovesanime]

just what I was looking for very informative :]

[somecallmejim]

Great. Thanks!

[SionOriega]

Great video Jim. It was very educational and I'm willing to bet will be a big help to other YouTubers confused about copyright laws. One thing I thought was cool is the song playing in the background lasted exactly as long as the video (if it wasn't doing something like looping and I just didn't notice).

Keep up the great work! :)

[somecallmejim]

It took some clever fandangling to get the music to match. I actually had a lot more footage that I cut out, and one of the reasons was that I'd have to end mid-song (I hate that!).

Glad it can be of use! Thanks for the comment! :-D

[MrHeliotrope]

You sir are a magic man! Thank you!

[MultimediaJay]

I'd cut the music volume in half from what you have it now when you're speaking. You were fighting against the drums in some parts of the videos. =) This specific video on copyrights though will go nicely with something I'm doing in the future on asset permissions in presentations. =)

[somecallmejim]

Hey, glad I could be of service.

And on the volume, I'm working on a happy medium. You can manually set each gain point (takes a long time) or you can click and drag. Unfortunately, with click and drag, the level goes from where it is in this video, to the almost inaudible music from Jim Class 1. Go figure! :-)

[ELoney]

change your title to "copyright" not copyight:)love your vids keep up the good work

[somecallmejim]

LOL! There's egg on my face! :-D

Changed the typo, thanks for pointing it out, and glad that you liked it :-)

[abigdaddyof2]

Great video! I, as others have said, learned a lot!

Thanks Jim!

[somecallmejim]

No problem. Glad I can shear a little bit of my knowledge and have it serve a useful purpose! :-)

[MrHeliotrope]

I agree! Thanks

[Blinkazoid]

Utterly fantastic video Jim. I learned a lot. The vast majority of what I do is original content, but I sometimes use a background song because my video just doesn't work without it. I kinda wonder if my recent subscriber tribute video would fall under the X factor you mention at the end. Also, I actually had shelved the idea of doing a video of songs from the 70's with lots of 5-10 second audio snippets, but might now revisit the idea.

[Blinkazoid]

Also as a side note. I actually would be willing to pay a small amount to use artists songs as background to my material so long as the cost was within reason. There's no method of doing so now but perhaps some time in the future there will be. My cat vids with backgound music I wouldn't want to pay much, but for somthing like my subscribe tribute video I'd have been more than willing to ante up had there been a convienent method for doing so.

[Marihani]

Check out the video I posted as a reply to this - from September called "The Vloggers' Grail?" - there are great sources of good music you can use without worrying about copyright.

[somecallmejim]

That is a great resource Marihani! Thanks for posting it!

[somecallmejim]

As marihani suggested, check out the creative commons material out there. Some of it is really great. That's where I go the tracks for this.

[somecallmejim]

Yeah, doing a "music review" would fall into fair use, so you'd probably be safe (of course, some lawyer out there...lawyers...ugh!)

Just keep in mind, fair use is a very grey area of the law. VERY grey!

[SpringDivers]

Very informative. Nice blues music in the background. I knew your beautiful wife could cook, but I didn't know you were a musician. Nice chops.

Thanks - SpringDivers

[somecallmejim]

Hey spring! :-D

I'm pretty hot on the mouth harp, but I can't take credit for this masterpiece of blues. Heck out the end credits, and check out the rest of these guys. If you like blues, you'll love their stuff! :-)

[Marihani]

Weird Al still uses the MUSIC as is, though - just changes the text. What about the music-writer's copyright?

Thanks for the vid, Jim. Very interesting!

[AkewsticRockR]

Weird al doesn't use the music as is. He creates a reasonable facsimile of it after getting permission from the artist to use the tune.

[Marihani]

Okay, so he has to change the music, and to be safe, also get permission from the person who wrote the music. Did I understand that right?

[MultimediaJay]

His band re-plays it though, so he doesn't superimpose himself on top of the original recording. :-)

[MGB1000]

Weird Al also have copyright premission on the music and pays roylaities on the use thereof.

[Marihani]

Ahhh - then I get it. Thanks :-)

[kbs0208]

Great as always... I always learn something from your videos. If I come up with an idea I'll let u know~ =)

[somecallmejim]

Thanks kbs0208! I appreciate it! :-)

[rchitec]

As always, you're informative and entertaining.

[somecallmejim]

Thanks! :-)

[IRTheBorg]

Read YouTube's terms of use section 5, paragraph b. Accoriding to this you don't need permission to use anybody's material on YouTube, as long as it is posted legally.

Larry

[somecallmejim]

Actually, according to the Terms of Use, YouTube doesn't need permission to copy, distribute, etc. You still own the rights, and other users are technically still bound to copyright in using other YouTubers' material. It's not against the rules, for example, for youtube to copy your video to it's other servers, but if I copy it to my hard drive, I've infringed.

[nickg79]

good idea but the music was too much and too long IMO and i had to stop watching at the nine minute mark.

[somecallmejim]

Yeah, I think I left the music on too loud, but if I got rid of it entirely, it would bore the snot out of you. Believe me, I watched it like that!

I'll watch the background music track more closely next time. Thaks for the input! :-)

[Alcegi]

great video, lots of useful information

[somecallmejim]

Thanks! Hopefully it will help you out!

[RightAsWrong]

Great video Jim. Informative as always. I look forward to seeing future installments. :D

[somecallmejim]

Thaks RightAsWrong! glad you liked it! :-D

[dougm1971]

what a great video...i am very impressed by you fella..

my old account was suspended because i had clips of a band called 'the alarm' from old british tv shows...

i'm not complaining though...

i'm guilty of using you in one of my videos...oops :-)

[somecallmejim]

Thanks for the kind words, and no worries on using any of my stuff. As long as you're not making money off it, I don't care who uses this stuff! :-D