YouTube Madness

I recently got this email from the good folks at YouTube regarding a video I shot 15 years ago and posted to their site over a year ago:

Dear multimediajones,
Your video may have content that is owned or licensed by UMG.
No action is required on your part; however, if you are interested in learning how this affects your video, please visit the Content ID Matches section of your account for more information.

Sincerely,
- The YouTube Team


The content is personal and was uploaded to share only with members of my family. It's set to "private" and has only been viewed 7 times. There was music playing in the background for the first minute of the five minute video and is not the main focus of the clip. However, there is a link under the video listing the song playing with an offer to buy it through iTunes. I didn't place that link or even mention the song in my description.

This makes me think someone somewhere recognized the song and put that link on my page. And if Google and/or Apple is trying to make money off of MY VIDEO, why is the Universal Music Group complaining to me about it? As a content creator myself, I'm down with intellectual property. But in this digital age, owners are placing more emphasis on the "property" instead of the "intellectual" side of the equation, especially the dying music industry.

I don't care if they remove the audio from my video as it's not the point of this clip anyway. But why are multi-billion dollar corporations spending this much time, energy and money chasing down small potatoes like me? Don't they have more important things to do with their dwindling resources? Apparently not.

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