Using film clips in a song.

[Tana Edwards]

Hi, I was wanting to insert a few bits of dialogue from some Columbo movies into a song( don't ask)
If I were to then broadcast it on say YouTube, would I be in trouble regards copyright infringement?
The answer i am expecting is yes but does anybody know a way around this? I'm sure it has been done before a thousand times( maybe not with Columbo)
Big Audio Dynamite come to mind for one.
If anybody knows the rules on this and can give some guidance I'd be most grateful.
BTW I'm not intending to sell this.
Thanks.

[Ian Craig]

Hi,

Youtube use a frequency, harmonic ratio, time-frame recognition criteria to identify copyrighted material. If the clips are short you might get away with it, but for example, taking an entire track and pitch shifting it down an octave will not work as the algorithm can identify material by it's harmonics in relation to it's time-frame.
You can risk putting up stuff and it will probably be listed as having a copyright claim on behalf of someone mentioned against it, but as long as you don't contest this it should be okay (it will inform you of this next to the video saying that the copyright holder has allowed the video to be monetized by the placing of ads on the video and that you don't have to do anything if you are happy with this).
My solution recently has been to create a second Youtube account for anything that might fall into this category using a secondary email account, just in case they close my account for persistent copyright violations (I've seen them do this before to other people's accounts)

(The next bit is not strictly relevant)
I used to put stuff up on Audioboo (which became AudioBoom) as it was used by broadcasters to upload clips of radio interviews etc and their terms and conditions didn't mention copyright much, but they decided to charge for the service, so I can't put up anything new. I had clips of Columbo with Beavis and Butthead and altered Starsky and Hutch themes etc.
A short non-musical example

Beavis & Butthead Watch Columbo (Fix Up).mp3

(505.71 KiB) Downloaded 108 times

[dpaterson]

Interesting.

Thanks Ian for that explanation re: Youtube. Always wondered how they did that. Never bothered to look it up though. Always figured though: the day I upload covers to Youtube and receive a copyright infringement notice well then I know I've covered the artist REAL well!!! LOL!!!

Regards,

Dale.

[Tana Edwards]

Thanks for that info, very useful to know.
The clips I'm using are very short.
Love your little sketch, heh heh.