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You can't play Bach on Facebook because Sony says they own his compositions

292 points| rmason | 7 years ago |boingboing.net | reply

107 comments

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[+] yason|7 years ago|reply
It seems to me that the content identification works as advertised: it's the metadata that is missing essential information due to inadequate process.

If Youtube knew that the author is Bach and not Sony it would know not to flag the soundtracks featuring Bach songs.

However, the problem is that at some point Sony lied to Youtube and claimed ownership of these songs even though they are in public domain. So there should be reviews or penalty for flagging copyright on someone else's works.

Sony could claim they have copyright on the very Bach recording they uploaded themselves but if content id system can't differentiate between Sony's Bach and anyone's Bach, then for practical purposes there probably aren't much basis for the recording to be eligible for a copyright by Sony.

[+] pluma|7 years ago|reply
Not just that, the AI also can't recognise fair use.

The only legitimate (read: non-overbearing, not publishing individual creators by erring on the side of registered rights holders) implementation of this process would be if the registered rights holders were merely notified (with an easy option of forcing a takedown or demonetization) of every potentially infringing upload but the uploads themselves were not demonetized or otherwise punished.

Automated content filters will always be more restrictive than the letter of the law if they have to make automated judgments and the publishing is time sensitive.

That said, Content ID basically allows rights holders to tap all the power of a DMCA takedown without the legal risk of committing a felony by filing an illegitimate claim.

[+] notyourday|7 years ago|reply
> However, the problem is that at some point Sony lied to Youtube and claimed ownership of these songs even though they are in public domain. So there should be reviews or penalty for flagging copyright on someone else's works.

There is no technical solution to this problem because it is not a technological problem. It is a social problem. Fascinatingly, there is a great social solution to this problem:

* Monetary penalties - asserting an incorrect ownership should create a very strong bite against the entity making such assertion. Make it $500k per incident. If after 10 people upload a slightly different Bach performance that they themselves did Sony's bank accounts decreases by 5 million the erroneous assertions would as if by magic go away.

[+] fipple|7 years ago|reply
Huh? If Youtube’s black box AI can’t tell the difference between recordings by Glenn Gould and Murray Perahia they should be equivalent in the eyes of copyright law?
[+] pasbesoin|7 years ago|reply
Lawyers who consistently engage in this, and/or back up corporations that do, should be disbarred.

Watch your abuses decline precipitously, after enacting such policy.

Lawyers take an oath to uphold the law -- not just their employer's policy. Enforce this.

[+] anonytrary|7 years ago|reply
Constructions like this are living proof that maybe the system we've decided to implement isn't as smart as we thought it was. Humans have a knack for thinking they can control things they don't actually understand -- and we end up with contradictions like this situation. I'll leave these here:

> I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.

-- Jefferson

> That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

-- Declaration of Independence

[+] fenomas|7 years ago|reply
> ...proof that maybe the system we've decided to implement isn't as smart as we thought it was.

I'd say it's a lot simpler than that - it's proof that systems that don't penalize false positives will have lots of false positives.

I mean, imagine if YouTube announced that content owners would be subject to the same "three strikes" policy as uploaders, and music companies could be kicked off the site for making baseless copyright claims. One suspects that the dumb systems you're talking about would get a lot smarter.

[+] pavanlimo|7 years ago|reply
I tend to agree with Elon Musk's idea that every law should come with an expiry date. So that there is debate before it is renewed.
[+] srtjstjsj|7 years ago|reply
Copyright law has been amended (extended) in the past century, so those quotes don't mean what you want them to mean.
[+] pfooti|7 years ago|reply
Headline seems demonstrably untrue [0]. Better framing should be, "contentID incorrectly identifies YouTube sample as being part of a totally legally copyrighted recording of a Bach work". (Bracketing for now the rightness or copyright at all, I suppose)

0: https://youtu.be/ddbxFi3-UO4

[+] srtjstjsj|7 years ago|reply
And it's Facebook, not Youtube contentID
[+] mlang23|7 years ago|reply
Been there. I was, and still am, surspised that we allow for automatic algorithms to do copyright claims. non-free algorithms deciding about the faith of real people sounds like the stuff from dystopian scifi novels, but that is what we already allow to happen in real world.
[+] ekianjo|7 years ago|reply
You dont have to use Youtube to host things though. Youtube is not the Internet. We should go back to decentralizing things again.
[+] martin-adams|7 years ago|reply
YouTube have the audience though. That's why people publish to YouTube if they want to tap into YouTube's massive audience.
[+] tokyodude|7 years ago|reply
it does feel to me you do mostly have to use YouTube. I can afford to host video if it becomes remotely popular.
[+] petermcneeley|7 years ago|reply
This is simply due to an over zealous copyright detection algorithm.

That being said does any remember Napster and the good old days? Makes me feel old and yearn for a more innocent time.

[+] gamesbrainiac|7 years ago|reply
Is there any penalty for being overzealous regarding the protection of your copyrights? I understand that individuals could litigate, but I would assume that to be a long winded process.
[+] pasta|7 years ago|reply
There are two types of copyright at work here:

1. The music (score)

2. The recording of a performance of the music

For old music nr.1 has expired. But nr.2 can still be copyrighted.

The question is: how does Facebook know the performance is under copyright by Sony? I guess they don't..

[+] Piskvorrr|7 years ago|reply
That's a hard problem to solve. So every content-id system out there hacks around that - by not solving it, and merely pretending that whoever claims the rights first actually has them. Convenient for the platform and whoever has deeper pockets for lawsuits.
[+] frgewut|7 years ago|reply
On the other hand YT is full of various Peppa Pig videos (inverted colors, mirror images and all kinds of other weird transformations). YouTube's algorithm apparently can't detect such copyright violations. And the really annoying part is that these videos often rank higher than the original ones.
[+] srtjstjsj|7 years ago|reply
It's an interesting technical question, why video is so easy to change fingerprint, but audio isn't. I suppose it comes down to a few things:

* Video has higher dimensionality

* Distorted videos often have distorted audio (usually dialog) that would ruin the work if the audio was the primary value of the work.

[+] bryanrasmussen|7 years ago|reply
but are the copyright violations then, there has been significant alteration done to the original work.
[+] poulsbohemian|7 years ago|reply
I have to wonder - isn't the response to this kind of ridiculousness to simply not post on YouTube, for example: http://allofbach.com/en/ ? Yes it's not going to get you the audience YouTube might, but if their platform isn't serving legitimate artists then what good is it anyway?
[+] metaphor|7 years ago|reply
> I have to wonder - isn't the response to this kind of ridiculousness to simply not post on YouTube

Apparently not. From the article:

In one week, the European Parliament will vote on a proposal to force all online services to implement Content ID-style censorship, but not just for videos -- for audio, text, stills, code, everything.

[+] metafizikal|7 years ago|reply
Eyeballs, basically. The eyeballs are on YouTube already, so if you want an audience and you're off YouTube, you're fighting an uphill battle.

But classical music, sad to say, largely is a niche pursuit. Niche content can always find a home somewhere and users will seek it out.

And I haven't followed the news closely, but if the EU is indeed going to mandate Content-ID style systems, theoretically these niche sites that don't have one will be under some level of legal and regulatory exposure? Not quite sure how any of that would work in practice.

[+] nugget|7 years ago|reply
YouTube is probably most afraid of Twitch. I’d stream/post there instead and see what happens.
[+] rspeer|7 years ago|reply
It's not like just anyone can put a video on AllOfBach. That site is entirely the Netherlands Bach Society's project.

If you're saying everyone should make their own AllOfBach... the website clearly has taken tons of development effort, its first iteration was unusably difficult to navigate, it's still not great at accessibility, and if I wanted a portable version of their recordings I have even fewer options than I would with YouTube.

I'm glad AllOfBach exists but there's a reason people want to stick to the music services they are already familiar with.

[+] ars|7 years ago|reply
If someone tells me "Bach #xyz is amazing, you have to hear it", I'm going to type it into youtube to listen to it.

I'm not going to search for it elsewhere because it's not a core interest of mine.

Devoted fans will find content anywhere, but casual viewers will just look in the default spot.

[+] bovermyer|7 years ago|reply
I'd like to see a debate on whether copyright itself is a good thing.
[+] gwbas1c|7 years ago|reply
The last time I reviewed copyright law, fraudulently claiming ownership of someone else's work is a very big deal. This is something that can be handled with a class action lawsuit.
[+] buboard|7 years ago|reply
So their network generalizes well - Good! But they use it to identify recordings - Bad. Stupid humans.
[+] tempodox|7 years ago|reply
I had better not let Sony know that I play Bach in my home without their kind permission.
[+] jondubois|7 years ago|reply
The government keeps introducing new laws all the time. The system is becoming bloated and exceedingly restrictive. Maybe they should focus on removing old laws.

Or at least focus on adding more laws to restrict the rights of corporations instead of people.