Can someone explain YouTube copyright I.D.?

[Captain Satellite]

Hello,
I have an account that I use to play rock guitar covers. I play my guitar and mix it with the track. UMG claimed copyright to 'Midnight Rambler' by the Rolling Stones. I understand about copyright and digital fingerprinting, etc.

Here's what I don't understand: As a test, I recorded a copyrighted track using a microphone, mixed this WAY down under my guitar, uploaded this with a tag of 'TEST' and it still was identified as the track I was playing along to - 'Up Around The Bend' by CCR. How does this work?

I hope this isn't considered 'WAREZ', mods.

[thecoalman]

I don't know how it works but I'll make a suggestion. They generate a fingerprint from the original track probably according to the beat, they probably further refine this and just fingerprint specific sections according to some criteria. When you upload they'll examine your audio track for the same criteria and fingerprint that section. Then they'll try and match against their database of known fingerprints. If they get a match then the file is probably scrutinized more closely to see if it matches the whole fingerprint.

[stantheman1976]

If you're using the original track in any way shape or form it can be considered copyright infringement. There could be a dozen different ways they find videos. I've heard that Prince has people scour youtube looking for anything with his music. There's one better known case of a woman who filmed her kid dancing to a Prince song and had it removed for copyright violation. The database idea seems possible. I would think it's more likely it was almost random or maybe that day some hired gun was searching for Stones' songs. If it happened either of those ways your account could have been flagged and watched for any further "violations".

[jagabo]

I suspect you've just been blacklisted because you were flagged as an infringer before. Now everything you upload is viewed by a human being who is instructed to remove everything that might be a copyright violation.

[Captain Satellite]

Thanks guys. Nope, that's not it. I upload it and it says it is processing. When it has finished processing, it comes back and says that a third party has claimed copyright content - immediately. Maybe my account has been flagged but with the thousands of videos being uploaded, are they really just sitting there waiting for my piddly little guitar wanking video?

How's this for a bit of weirdness? After one Stones' was tagged I set the rest to private, they don't show up on my account. Yet, when I Google 'Honky Tonk Women', it still shows up and is public.

Thanks for the reply.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTicWbp1MLQ

[jagabo]

Upload a video with no possible copyright violation and see what happens. Maybe everything you upload is automatically marked a violation until it has been cleared by a human.

[Captain Satellite]

I did that and I muxed a picture with "Revolution" and "Roadhouse Blues" as a test and it was fine. So those will be my next two covers - I hope.

[thecoalman]

Google/youtube has actively been pursuing software that can automatically detect copyrighted audio and video for quite a while now. It exists, I'd imagine its quite accurate too and the only question is how well it scales. Detecting video is going to require a boatload of CPU power under any circumstances.