2017/11/09

Another bogus copyright claim; I’ve had enough. Goodbye, Youtube

This morning Youtube sent me another automatically generated “copyright claim” on a half-minute portion of Moonscape.

Video title: Moonscape part 7 - Samples and Photos v1.0 (English) 720p
Copyrighted content: No Function (Scott Fraser Surface Pressure Mix)
Claimed by: [Merlin] aboveboarddist

The “content” is just Neil and Buzz talking with Mission Control while they’re on the Moon. No music, no sound effects; just voices from the original NASA recordings.

As a consequence of this bogus claim, the alleged “copyright owner” is now monetizing Moonscape. In other words, making money off my work, which I offer for free.

This is not the first time. I’ve had at least six Youtube copyright claims against Moonscape, and all were retracted after I disputed them.

Once again, I am disputing the bogus claim by following the steps detailed here: I stated that the material is the public domain or unsuitable for copyright protection. I then added the following explanation for disputing the claim:

The disputed material is a NASA recording of the Apollo 11 Moon landing and as such is NOT copyrighted, as stated in NASA's copyright rules at http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html. The claimant appears to be claiming copyright on US government property.

Youtube now says “Your copyright dispute is currently being reviewed by the copyright owner. You'll receive a response within 30 days from when you filed the dispute.”

I’ll update this post when I receive Youtube’s response. I will then delete all my copies of Moonscape from Youtube (I‘ve just finished deleting every one except the one in dispute).

I’ve had enough of this time-wasting hassle. Moonscape is now hosted on Vimeo and can be viewed here.