Due to some new Google rules involving enforcement of the potential infringement of copyright in its YouTube videos (Google owns YouTube), we are going to start implementing some stricter rules as to what can be posted on Thunder Row.
We will no longer accept the posting of videos where you feature yourself (or any bassist) playing along to a fave song, if that song is featured in the background. Google/YouTube attests that the person filming hasn't the right to feature copyright protected music without the owner's permission.
Examples:
1 - I want to post a video of Zander Zon playing solo "Stairway to Heaven" on his bass. This is okay, because Zon is just giving us his version of the song.
2 - My band had a great gig this last weekend. Here's us playing "Billie Jean," with me on bass!! This is also okay.
3 - A Thunder Row member wants to post a video of him/herself playing bass to "Radar Love" and has the Golden Earring version playing in the background as a guide. This is not okay anymore, since the member has not cleared the use of the song through the owners.
4 - Anything in the Public Domain is still good to go.
If you record a video like the example in #3, and post it to YouTube, you've probably already dealt with their copyright censor, since YouTube scans every video uploaded for markers that would flag it as a violation. They will notify you if your video may be an infringement. Some songs slip through their censor, especially if you play to an unknown cover band's version, but YouTube's database of known songs is pretty durn extensive.
There are rules that allow postings of this nature to stay up, based on the "Fair Use Clause." If you feel your video falls into this category, you can submit a disclaimer to YouTube, describing the category of Fair Use under which your video resides, (they have you fill out a form) and they may or may not accept it. I, myself, have a couple of videos on my channel that cannot be seen in Germany because of this. My appeals for Fair Use were accepted by the content owners in the USA, Canada, and most other countries, but were rejected in Germany. I have one video of me playing along to CCR's "Bad Moon Rising" and another of me playing to "Monster Mash." Neither is allowed to be seen in Germany. I also have a third video of me playing along to "There's a Tear in My Beer" that has gone completely under the radar, since I am using a cover band's version of the song, and it was not recognised by their content censors.
This is the basic Fair Use disclaimer statement:
"According to the 'Fair Use' clause of International Copyright Law, the author declares that the use of the photos/images/information in this academic/reference/scholarly work is for purposes of 'criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research' according to Section 107."
There are various versions of it, but this will usually get your video a day in court.
Thunder Row is going to act on the side of caution and remove any videos that feature someone playing along to a background song for which the player does not own the rights. Even if you have received a stay of execution through a Fair Use submission/acceptance, we don't want to rock the boat on this whole issue. As part of our clean-up process, I am going to find any of my own videos that have been flagged by YouTube and remove them from Thunder Row.
If we take down your video, we'll send you a note to let you know. Whether or not you take these videos down from your YouTube channel is your own business - we're only concerned with what's posted on Thunder Row. I know from personal experience that if YouTube asks you to take a video down and you don't comply, they usually just stick a bunch of ads on your page and let it run with links to iTunes to buy the originals. Good enough.
Truth be told, gang, they're probably only interested in going after big-time offenders who earn money from their sites, not Joe-Blow bass players who just want to show off their skills. Nonetheless, where this issue is concerned, Thunder Row wants to stay within the confines of the copyright laws.
If you want to post something here, but aren't sure if you're good to go, send me or David a link to the video and we'll pre-screen it for TR. Before you contact us, however, post the video to YouTube and see whether or not they flag it for content. If they do, it's a safe bet we'll be forced to turn it down.
There are likely going to be questions about this. As usual, we'll all do our best to help you make the decision for each situation.
You can still post videos of your fave pro bass players doing their thing on stage. As far as posting those old 70s videos where it shows a 45 record spinning while the song plays... I am really not sure about those just yet. To the best of my knowledge, YouTube is going to enforce the rules at their end. They'll be dealing with the channel-holders who post the questionable videos. Grey areas abound, that's for sure!
This new policy is going to start being enforced by Google/YouTube in the coming weeks, so we're going to be updating our own site based on new info as we receive it. I've been doing my best to read up on this subject so that we're doing all we should be, but please let us know if you come across any info that updates/contradicts anything posted here. It's a learning process.
The good news? We continue to offer each and every one of you full permission to post yourself playing along with any lesson or video from Roy Vogt's Teach Me Bass Guitar.
Thanks in advance for your understanding.
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