YouTube Content ID Under Fire As False Copyright Claims Abound

False copyright claims on YouTube videos, such as a recent claim from Rumblefish against a video with sounds of chirping birds caught on camera, have people questioning the effectiveness of YouTube's Content ID.

A few days ago a YouTube user, eeplox, uploaded a video he made of himself going on a nature walk to pick some dandelion greens for a salad.  The video contained no added music or sound effects—just the sounds of nature and chirping birds picked up by the video camera.  However, much to eeplox’s surprise he received a copyright notice—apparently music company Rumblefish claimed to own the copyright to the “music” aka chirping birds in the video and eeplox was informed that they would be putting ads on the video to profit from his use of their track.

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