The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have a YouTube channel and upload shellac recordings from time to time. I fully understand that the copyrights are nothing whatsoever to do with me and that the owners have every right to do what they decide with their property. My only aim is to share what I consider to be good music with the rest of the world and I am always very careful to give the proper accreditation in my attached notes. I keenly appreciate the importance of artists, musicians, performers and recording companies receiving their just rewards at all times.

What interests me, and is the subject of this query, is that I sometimes receive a notice from YT that a particular upload has been banned in some countries. I had one today and here is the list of countries involved:

Your video can't be played in these countries: Albania, Angola, Australia, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bouvet Island, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Comoros, Congo, Congo - Democratic Republic of, Cook Islands, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greenland, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Kenya, Kiribati, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Norfolk Island, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

93 countries.

Can anyone tell me how the system works ? This list seems rather strange and I am wondering just how it is arrived at and why so many of the larger countries are missing ?

Many thanks.

The simple answer is that copyright coverage and length varies from country to country, and also varies depending on what is being copyrighted.

For example, in the EU, all sound recordings published prior to 1963 are now in the public domain and may be freely copied and used by anyone there. However, here in the USA, there are virtually no public domain sound recordings, regardless of when they were published. Yes, that means that Caruso records are still not public domain in the USA.

You must also take into consideration the copyright on the underlying composition. In the USA, anything (other than sound recordings) published before 1923 is now public domain. In the EU, however, copyright applies 70 years beyond the death of the last surviving author. That means something like Rhapsody in Blue (published 1924) became public domain in Europe in 2007 (Gershwin died in 1937) but is still in copyright in the USA.

I got some copyright claims like yours. One of my videos was blocked in about 170 something countries.

I also get copyright claims on most of my other videos, but they usually leave the video up, and nothing really changes. I had a problem with them nearly taking down my video of my Credenza playing " I Wanna Be Loved by You" by Helen Kane. I'm currently disputing it, using my others videos as a reason to leave my video up. ( Also, several other people have posted videos of various phonographs playing the same record I did, and their videos are still up! )

These are the people who made the claim against me and blocked my video. They can't possibly own all those songs

http://www.wyastone.co.uk/all-labels/retrospective.html

From what I understand, most of the people doing this are known as "copyright trolls". They buy old copyrights just to sue people and make profit doing so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_troll

Doesn't it also have something to do with weather or not you are involved with making some money from your videos? I have gotten that claim on some of my record postings as well, but I don't participate in any of the monetary ends of youtube and nothing else has been said to me about it. No more people than I have look at my videos, it's hardly worth trying to make money at it, and it certainly can't be any threat to what they might think the music is still worth after all of these years. Wow, Helen Kane too yet. When Shirley Temple died my sister was all upset because nobody that she worked with had heard of her, much less Helen Kane! Some folks really spend too much time navel gazing, that's for sure.

EarlH wrote:Doesn't it also have something to do with weather or not you are involved with making some money from your videos? I have gotten that claim on some of my record postings as well, but I don't participate in any of the monetary ends of youtube and nothing else has been said to me about it. No more people than I have look at my videos, it's hardly worth trying to make money at it, and it certainly can't be any threat to what they might think the music is still worth after all of these years. Wow, Helen Kane too yet. When Shirley Temple died my sister was all upset because nobody that she worked with had heard of her, much less Helen Kane! Some folks really spend too much time navel gazing, that's for sure.

The fact is that these trolls do not care whether a poster has monetized their video or not. They are simply trying to extort money by any means they can.

This is why I no longer post on YouTube.

Bill

Does anyone know if voice recordings have any copyright restrictions - speeches from historical figures, recordings like "I Am The Edison Phonograph", ect.?