GREETINGS TO MY BLOG READERS! I hope you are all doing well and have survived the transition to the new year, 2022. It has been a challenging and difficult two years for everyone. So if you managed to make it through relatively unscathed, Congratulations!
and just keep living. But please live well! WITH LOVE ABOVE ALL!
I haven't posted a new entry for a while so here's the latest on what's new with Music Mama.
I do not want to be insensitive to any kind of suffering or trouble someone may be going through, so I wanna warn you ahead of time that this blog is intended to entertain and hopefully bring you a smile. So I'm probably going to complain and whine about stuff that you may think is trivial, but is part of my life. And that's why you write a blog is to explore and share your life. The good and bad, the ups and downs, the joy and sorrow, the laughter and tears. Hopefully, there's more laughter than tears!
So aside from all the usual drama around here, I had an unsettling experience while uploading my recent video to YouTube that I would like to share with you. First I should mention that making videos has become a new passion of mine. I am devoting a lot of time to the craft of creating movies. Anyone who's ever attempted to make a video knows that there are a lot of challenges involved. If you want to have a good video. And I suppose that is relative to the viewer whether they think your product is good or not. Fortunately, I've been getting some good feedback on the recent videos. I've only been doing this for a couple of months, so I'm still on the learning curve. I hope that you will watch the latest video I posted to my webpage, called: "WELCOME TO THE CAST OF THE PERILS OF JEANINE" and to anyone who has checked out the music on my music page, I would like to recommend watching the video on my video page "WAVE OF THE DOLPHIN WING OF THE DOVE" because I created a video around my song! 😵💫 Wow that was a long sentence! Which does bring me back to the point of this extremely frustrating and anger inducing experience. YouTube and the copyright issue. Hence the title of this blog, WHOSE TUBE IS IT ANYWAY?
So I go to YouTube to upload my video and as I'm filling out the information and the video was uploading, immediately there was a notification.😱 OH NO! A notice of copyright infringement. What can this be I wondered? And when I went to look at what the copyright infringement was, it said that some record company I've never heard of owned the copyrights to my song that I was using in my video. It was the song "Wave Of The Dolphin…" mentioned previously.
Here are the images I was planning to use for my video "Wave Of The Dolphin Wing of the Dove". I was making it to go with the song, so of course I had the song, MY song, I stress the word MY because it is my song, first. I wrote it over 15 years ago and like with all of my songs, I registered it with the Library of Congress so that I would have my copyright. And I do have proof of the copyright in my files, which has turned out to be extremely fortunate. How many people think they're going to need their copyright? Trust me, if you are a composer or songwriter please make sure that your work is protected with a copyright.
So I was absolutely shocked to see that this company was claiming to own the copyright to my song. To make a very long story short, I had to dispute the claim on YouTube which was a nightmare! I could not get a hold of this aforementioned nefarious company to find out why they thought they could claim a copyright in the first place they didn't own. And when I tried with the record company I suspected was behind it, there is no actual person to speak with. They have a "BOT" the robot even has a name, Dave, I spend way too many hours of my life trying to deal with Dave and I could upload some of the stuff horrible pages of transcript between that stupid bot and myself so I am only including a page out of that nonsense. I am going to try and block out the specific name of the company as well.
Here is the first letter I had to write
"Hi YouTube!
it's Jeanine Michaels again, the owner of the copyright to this song "Wave of Dolphin" used in my video. I noticed that this is still under dispute and fraudulently says: Copyright owners
Interstreet Recordings
On behalf of: 3309950 Records DK
This record company is claiming they own my copyright. I own the copyright, it is my song, I composed the music and the lyrics and registered this song with the Library of Congress and have a copyright. I submitted this dispute and noticed that it is still under review. I'm not sure who else to contact about this issue but it is extremely upsetting to me. I want this dispute removed immediately because I am the copyright owner and this is fraud. It is a serious issue! I believe I already sent you feedback on this problem, but after two days I noticed that the dispute is still not resolved. I tried to contact (name deleted) who I believe may be the company behind this, but I have had no luck reaching a real live person. Only a frustrating experience with their BOT. Again I will say to YouTube that I would never upload a video with anyone else's music unless I had permission. I create most of my videos with an app called InShot where there are songs offered with their license to use and sometimes I use those. I often add my own songs since I am a singer songwriter, and do have my songs on YouTube as well as my video channel located on my music channel.This is happened twice with two of my songs by the same company and I really need resolution so that it never happens again.
Thank you
Jeanine Michaels
I'm sorry I know I said I wouldn't include any of this ridiculous chat with that stupid BOT but I couldn't resist! Some of you odd people might find it amusing:
D
Hi, I'm Dave, the Chat Bot! I can help find ways to self-solve most of your issues, as well as get you in contact with our support team!
1:32 pm
How can I help? Feel free to type your question, or select a topic below.
1:32 pm
Can I Upload a Sound-a-like?
1:32 pm
D
Sound-a-likes--or cover versions, or tribute songs that sound verrry similar to the original--aren’t accepted by stores.
1:32 pm
Stores may also reject cover songs that too-closely mimic the original artist's name or album art.
1:32 pm
Even if the content doesn't violate laws, it may confuse customers by causing audio matches in YouTube and other services. Which is why stores may reject it.
1:32 pm
I'll try it again. (name deleted) claims they own the copyright to my song. What do I do?
1:33 pm
D
Please clarify, here's what I found 👇
1:33 pm
Potential Copyright Infringement
1:33 pm
D
Ugh, really sorry to hear that!
1:33 pm
(name deleted) is constantly working to ensure that our users are only uploading content they have 100% rights to, but sometimes people stink. 😡
1:33 pm
Are you sure that they used (name deleted) to upload your music/photo/artwork?
1:33 pm
The notification of copyright infringement is on my song by YOUR company
1:34 pm
D
Please respond by typing 'yes' or 'no'.
1:34 pm
This is a serious issue. May I speak to a person
1:34 pm
D
Please respond by typing 'yes' or 'no'.
1:34 pm
NO
1:34 pm
D
If someone has uploaded your intellectual property outside the scope of (name deleted), that's unfortunately not something that we can help with.
1:34 pm
BUT, you can also reach out to each store with a DMCA takedown request. You might need to Google around for each store's process, but here are some we're aware of:
1:34 pm
Here's my copyright:
So in conclusion, YouTube notified me that the copyright dispute had finally been dismissed.
But it was four days later during which time I continued to be upset. And that is lucky for the person or persons responsible for creating the dispute in the first place. Because my husband is an attorney, and although he doesn't deal with intellectual property in his practice, he knows people who do. And I was ready to avail myself of his connections. Don't mess with MusicMama!
WHOSE TUBE IS IT ANYWAY?
I guess it's my tube, his tube, her tube,your tube, their tube, that guys tube, your dogs tube, grandmas tube,m and anyone's tube. But it will always be known as YouTube!
PS I apologize if you recognize your self and are embarrassed, because if you are, you should be! I deleted the specific name of the company. And one reason I did that is out of respect because this is the website where I was able to upload my songs, and this company made it possible to have my music available on venues such as Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, and others. And I must say that I ❤️ YouTube and the privilege of being able to post my videos on such an awesome venue. Along with millions of other people!
I would love to hear your story if you have one. So, click the chat button located at the bottom of every one of my website pages and let me know if you've had a frustrating experience you'd like to share, or just let me know if you enjoy my website and/or this rather lengthy and probably too esoteric post. If you made it this far, this is the end and if you liked it, I hope that you are also click the like button. It helps me when deciding what kind of content to include in a post, and whether it is something people can relate to or enjoy.
Thank you for taking the time to read, please be safe and healthy out there.
LOVE ABOVE ALL