Mar 11, 2024
Repeated fraudulent copyright claims on public domain music
I have disputed all three clearly illegitimate claims. 30 days have passed since the first one, with no response from APRA_CS, and thus the claim was removed. Unfortunately, it still takes an entire month to remove a bogus and illegal copyright claim, which means I still need to wait for the other two to expire.
APRA_CS also has a history of fraudulent composition claims on public domain work. In a blog post (https://blog.dbmiller.org/2022-04-08-not-that-kind-of-pirate-youtubes-music-copyright-system-is-still-broken), D. B. Miller, an administrator of IMSLP who has extensive experience with copyright law and public domain music, details the large number of composition claims he got on a production he did of a public domain opera. APRA_CS, MUST_CS, and ICE_CS made illegitimate and fraudulent claims to the overture of the opera, and UMPG Publishing made an illegitimate claim to a song from it. In addition, there are also mistakes in the system, as four composition claims were made on musical numbers from the Catalan translation of the opera. However, the only new copyrightable material in the Catalan translation is the Catalan lyrics, and the production was done in the original English.
I highly recommend reading the linked blog posts in their entirety as well, my post here is nowhere near comprehensive.
Miller then identifies the issue as the Content ID database containing fraudulent claims. In another blog post (https://blog.dbmiller.org/2021-06-28-dear-google-public-domain-compositions-exist) he details another instance of him receiving fraudulent composition claims on a different public domain opera. I agree with his proposed suggestion of a database of public domain compositions, such that any composition known to be in the public domain cannot have composition claims placed on it.
APRA_CS has also made false copyright claims on music they do not hold the copyright to. A Reddit post (https://www.reddit.com/r/touhou/comments/qvis7b/so_a_company_named_apra_cs_has_claimed_ownership/) shows them claiming a cover of a song from the video game series Touhou. All online copyright management of Touhou's music is done by RightsScale on behalf of Touhou Doujin Music Distribution, and by no one else.
What companies such as APRA_CS are doing is called copyfraud (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyfraud) and it is known to be illegal in at least the USA and Australia.
Therefore, I request that all composition claims on public domain works be removed from the Content ID database, and appropriate actions be taken against entities with a history of such fraudulent claims such as APRA_CS
Informational notification.
This question is locked and replying has been disabled.
Community content may not be verified or up-to-date. Learn more.
All Replies (2)
Mar 11, 2024