Classical Musicians Victimized by Erroneous Copyright Claims

By Laurie Niles: "One or more actions were applied to your video because of a copyright match." This was just one of two copyright claims that Amy Beth Horman received from Facebook Thursday, disputing ownership of videos of her daughter's violin performances. First, she received a copyright claim for a video of Ava's live performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto this week. Then, she got another for video she had posted in 2020 of then-10-year-old Ava performing "Meditation from Thais." These are both classical works that are in the public domain - not subject to copyright. Nonetheless, classical musicians receive these kinds of dreaded messages on a regular basis if they post videos of their performances on social media outlets such as Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Has the musician violated anyone's copyright? Almost never. These are automated copyright claims created by bots on behalf of big companies like Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group or Universal Music. If the bot finds that your performance has approximately the same notes and timing as one in their catalogue, they then claim that they own rights to your recording. But musicians have every right to perform and post a public domain work. Even so, musicians often find their recordings muted, earnings from ads on their performances given instead to the company filing the erroneous claim, and threats of having their accounts suspended or banned. To elaborate: even if a work is in the public domain, a recording label may still retain copyright to a specific performance of that work, if it was published in the last 95 years. However, it appears that the copyright bots are not sophisticated enough to tell the difference between a record label's specific performer and a talented student. "Truly, this happens every time I post now - and right away, within a minute or two," Amy told me. "It happens on both Facebook and Instagram." Ava, now 13, studies with Simon James at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. "We don't edit any videos of Ava, and we always either have permission to perform the works, or they are in public domain. My dad is a composer, so I know the rules well. I would estimate this has happened to us over 100 times, if I count all social media platforms." And what happens, when there is an erroneous copyright claim such as this? "They generally mute part of the videos, which is very annoying because it prevents people from being able to enjoy and listen to the full performance. Some videos have also been removed," Amy said. Of course, she always disputes the claims, but it's become extremely time-consuming. "It's just a constant part-time job to be responding to claims and updating disputes, filling out forms. Even when you aren't posting, they are claiming things from years ago! I have 16 emails from Instagram alone in December about reposting something they have removed from years ago. Even practice videos get muted or deleted." And disputing an erroneous copyright claim doesn't always lead to justice. "They have denied only a few disputes for us, but I know other people who - after multiple disputes - are still being denied, and their videos stay removed for months," Amy said. "I disputed her Ravel 'Tzigane' live performance, and they responded that no, they retain copyright, and they removed the video on Instagram. I submitted another form for that one, and I'm waiting for response." Ava is a young musician, and her mother is posting her performances videos as a way of documenting her musical journey. In the case of professional musicians, these kinds of erroneous copyright claims infringe on their ability to publicize and even monetize their own performances. And what is the recourse? You cannot argue with a bot. Violinist Emil Chudnovsky, who started a Facebook support group called Musicians Exasperated by Baseless, Automated Copyright Claims, said it well: "Facebook requires us, the musicians whose performances are suddenly claimed by someone else, to both take action by submitting a dispute and to offer a rationale for why we think a dispute is legitimate. In other words, Facebook places the onus of action and of proof upon those whose own performances are being highjacked." "To add the final insult to injury, Facebook then leaves the final word with the bot, of whether to retain or to relinquish the claim," said Chudnovsky. "The fact that there’s no human oversight even at that stage is shown by the number of times we’ve all submitted disputes on copyright claims made by Sony et al. on our performances, only to have a video (one that clearly features us performing a work of public domain, and not the alleged 'copyright owner') remaining muted or otherwise blocked - because the bot doesn’t judge itself to be wrong." I will reach out to public relations representatives from several labels for comment. Meanwhile, please feel free to share your experiences in the comments. You might also like:

• Youtube copyright issues
• 100 Days of Practice with Hilary Hahn
• Dare to Record Your Violin Practice: Tips for Empowered Recording

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