"Olaf, this is ContentID. ContentID, this is Olaf."

"Olaf, this is ContentID. ContentID, this is Olaf."

I didn't ask to encounter Youtube's watchdog for "copyrighted material", could have done well without, but it wasn't my choice. I made a few videos again, for the company. Nothing fancy, just promoting a nifty product feature. I wanted to add some simple background music, so once more I turned to Apple's Garageband.

Now I don't dare calling myself a "musician", far from it. But with Garageband even I have created a few "songs" that have found use before. This time I didn't want to distract people from what they see in the videos, so I used just one loop. (Cool Upright Bass 03 if you want to know - the loop deserves that name.)

Imagine my slightly bewildered face when I saw that three videos received copyright notices. How was that possible? Apple explicitly allows even the commercial use of Garageband songs. Exactly, that was the "problem":

Please remember, I used one loop in those videos. The person issuing the notices has a "song" up where he uses (Please fasten your seatbelt and hold your breath!) two loops (plus some noise and some more noise later). No, I don't want to link to his video, his view count is so low it would probably multiply if I did that. But yes, it appears he is trying to sell that on CD.

I wonder if he ever read the Garageband EULA. I did - partially. The copyright part, to be more specific, because I wanted to be on the safe side. And the person issuing those notices has gone onto very thin ice IMHO. I only used one loop, so there wan't really a "song". And loops themselves, while their use is free, are still copyrighted by Apple.

A Garageband user should know that. He should also know that there is only one loop in those videos. From what I read about Youtube's ContentID system, the "copyright holder" will be notified about a match and can then decide whether it is an infringement or not.

So he issued a notice, deliberately, for one loop that he happened to use too. Well, he made his first move and I made mine, now I am eagerly awaiting round 2, because in Youtube's ContentID docs there is this: "Do not make false claims. Misuse of this process may result in the suspension of your account or other legal consequences."

This should not be enough for a suspension (except if he did it a few times already), but I really wish someone like him gets fed some of his own medicine.