YouTube Deletes Infringing Soundtracks, Leaves Videos To Play in Silence
By Anna Johnson on January 16th, 2009TechCrunch reports that YouTube is now deleting music tracks off member videos where it believes such tracks have been used without the copyright holder’s permission.
In other words, when a YouTube member decides to add a Top 40 song to their video – or any other track in violation of copyright – YouTube’s practice is to delete the offending audio track!
Apparently, YouTube traditionally ‘fingerprinted’ audio tracks and notified users of an infringement when it identified a copyrighted song. In such cases, YouTube generally gave the copyright holder a choice between having the whole file removed or making revenue from placing ads on the video.
According to TechCrunch, YouTube is no longer hesitating – it’s leaving the videos but stripping out the audio, resulting in some spookily silent videos!
So, next time you watch a YouTube video where the sound doesn’t appear to be working, don’t assume there’s something wrong with your computer. It could be due to YouTube removing the sound track for copyright infringement.
Equally, add copyrighted content to your videos at your own risk…
Source: Michael Arrington, “YouTube Full Of Creepy, Soundless Music Videos,” TechCrunch, January 14, 2009
