My Friend Derek Needs Your Help!
My friend Derek Wallace, of organicreform.org needs your help. I’ll let him explain, from his blog:
Well, we had a good run, I suppose…
“The Road to Sustainability” (my 17-minute documentary about a cross-country road trip in a waste vegetable oil car) was online for just over a year, racked up a few thousand views and even got shown at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
But now, on the eve of my 30th birthday, I get this very disappointing message in my in-box…
—————–
A copyright owner has claimed it owns some or all of the audio content in your video The Road to Sustainability. The audio content identified in your video is For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield. We regret to inform you that your video has been blocked from playback due to a music rights issue.
Sincerely,
The YouTube Content Identification Team
—————–
Anyone know how to get in touch with Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Jim Messina and Dewey Martin? Somehow I doubt any of them had any problem with it. Then again, I don’t know, I’ve never met the cats. Most likely, some administrative assistant has the shitty job of doing Youtube searches on behalf of whatever corporation owns the rights to the song and then has to robotically send in music infringement notices.
When I first started making the documentary, I toyed with the idea of using music by independent artists. But ultimately, I decided to go with popular music to make it more palatable for a general audience. Besieds, navigating through the complex legal paperwork to get clearance just to put a song – which I never have and never will receive payment for using in my movie – was too impossible. Let alone for all of the songs I had in there.
But maybe Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Jim Messina and Dewey Martin might support what I have done if they were made aware of it? Maybe they might be able to throw their muscle behind my film and get it back up on Youtube? I’d like to hope so…
Anyway, if I make a short video this situation and put it up on Youtube, would you the reader be willing to post it to their websites and message boards for me?
I turn 30 on January 12th and that would be just about the best birthday present I could ever ask for.
Watch the video (for the moment sans audio) and decide for yourself whether this is a message worth spreading:
I can’t imagine that Neil Youg, et al would object to their music being featured in such a way. The video is not generating any income for Derek, it is just a way for him to express himself and spread his message of sustainability, and he did so very successfully. What’s the harm in that?
If any of you, dear readers, have any copyright law expertise, has a way of contacting these artists, or have your own blog to help Derek out and spread the word, I’m sure you would have the undying gratitude of us both!
-Justin
**Edit**
In case anyone is digging through my archives, I’m leaving this entry for posterity’s sake, but my friend Derek has moved on to other interests, and, near as I can tell, no longer has any online persona.
Through the magic of a friend on MySpace and text messaging, I was able to locate him and I plan to actually speak to him this weekend. He assures me he’s doing just fine.
Popularity: 1% [?]
