David Lee King

social media | emerging trends | libraries

Copyright Takedown Notices – what to do when one hits you

By

Have you ever received one of those pesky automatic copyright takedown notices? They are so irritating. Especially when they are … well … not accurate.

Here’s an example. A long time ago (around 2010), I made a short time lapse video of clouds going by, and posted it to Instagram. I wanted some music to go with it, so quickly opened up GarageBand, found a couple of synth loops (fully licensed for anyone’s use), and created some mood music for the video.

Fast forward to last month. Instagram flagged my video for using copyrighted music. I didn’t think much about it at the time because I was on vacation. But when I got back home, I poked around a bit more, and found they were incorrectly flagging my original song as a copyright infringement!

So I reposted the video – and immediately received another takedown notice.

Oddly enough, Instagram isn’t really sure what the song is that is being played. The two takedown notices I received reference different songs by different composers:

Well … I can tell you what song I used, because I still have it on my laptop. It is… My Song 3 (yeah, I know … original title!) by David Lee King. Feel free to take a listen – the song and video are included in this post (from my Instagram account).

So what happened? Most likely, Instagram’s automatic copyright music sniffer heard the free synth loop that comes with GarageBand, and matched it – because all three songs most likely used the exact same synth loop (sounds the same to my ears, anyway).

I appealed both of the takedown notices and claimed that I created the song and had permission to use it. The links to both takedown notices have disappeared, so I’m guessing both of my appeals were successful.

I have had similar things happen with YouTube. For example, I’ve used jingle music snippets that come fully licensed with Final Cut Pro and iMovie that have been incorrectly claimed as music from someone else. I have also created original music, and received takedown notices. Thankfully, both platforms offer a way to appeal those copyright flags.

My point? To get you to listen to my bad music! No – really, it’s just to say don’t be worried when you see one of those copyright claims, because it might be wrong. Go ahead and go through the process of making an appeal/challenge. Automated music copyright software is pretty handy, but it’s also not 100% accurate.

More reading:

Facebook Community Boost Event

By

Facebook recently held a Facebook Community Boost event in Topeka, and I attended. It was an interesting day and a half of learning about using Facebook and Instagram for a business or organization.

I mostly attended Instagram sessions, but also learned a little more about Facebook Ads.

Here’s what I heard about Facebook:

  • Gain more Reach by Boosting a post. That effectively turns the post into an ad.
  • Using a Call to Action button on an ad helps drive people to that next step.
  • One local restaurant mentioned that they created a Wednesday night special ($5 burgers), boosted that info on Facebook, and went from $4000 in sales to $10,000 in sales. Wow.
  • They talked a lot about using the Ad creation tools to help focus your ad on people likely to respond.

Things I heard about Instagram included:

  • 50% of Instagram Stories are short videos
  • 60% of Stories are watched with the sound on
  • Business goals for Stories include sales and promotions, launches of a new product or service, exclusives, tutorials, and behind-the-scenes content.
  • People are using the Hyperlapse app to tell a longer story in a short amount of time
  • 75% of people will search, share, and shop after being inspired by your post.
  • Feed posts are a glimpse into your business; Stories are a more casual, personal way to share
  • If you really like your Story, save it to share in your feed, or highlight it to make it permanent.
  • Polling Stickers in Stories are pretty cool. They provide real-time feedback in a simple poll.

They also briefly talked about IGTV – Instagram’s new way to include longer videos. There’s a separate app, and there’s a clickable icon in Instagram too (apparently just rolling that out).

When should you use the different ways to post in Instagram?

  • Feed – for someone who might not know about your business
  • Stories – a way to engage with followers daily.
  • Instagram Live – a way to connect to followers in real time
  • IGTV – a place to post longer videos

Finally, here’s a couple of useful tutorial and toolkit links:

I’m glad I attended! If you have the chance, attend if one of these events is headed to your area (they said there are about 12 more scheduled at the moment).

Image by Ethan + Anna

Music, Instagram, and Copyright

By

Instagram Copyright warningA couple weeks ago, I made a short Hyperlapse video of clouds (much more fun than the yardwork I was doing), and decided that the video needed music. So I quickly picked a song, added it to my video, and uploaded the video to Instagram (follow me – I’m davidleeking on Instagram!).

And then I received a notification from Instagram saying “Your video may have copyrighted content that belongs to someone else.”

I also received this email:

We’ve removed the video you posted at 12:47 PM on July 15, 2018 because it included the following content:

All Because Of You by Jonny Diaz

If you have permission to share everything in the video including the audio, like the soundtrack or music, you can appeal the removal and have your video re-posted. Remember that people should only post videos they have the right to share.

Ok. That was all definitely true! So I changed the music to something I created, re-edited the video, and re-uploaded it to Instagram. Problem solved!

I’m sharing this for two reasons:

  1. So you’ll know what to do if Instagram removes your video. Change the song (i.e., an original composition, a song with an appropriate Creative Commons license, or a song that came with your video editing software) and re-upload the video. No biggie.
  2. As a heads-up that Instagram is starting to notice copyright things, at least where audio is concerned. Here’s an article talking more about that change.

Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube all do this type of automatic monitoring and flagging of potential copyright violations. Not sure with Facebook, but both Instagram and YouTube have an appeals process, just in case they are wrong.

And they can be wrong! With YouTube, I have successfully appealed incorrect copyright warnings in the past: one because it was, in fact, my song (I was using CDBaby as a distributor, which is why that got flagged), and a couple because of more spammy record labels “overclaiming” things. In each of those cases, I was using perfectly legal loop-based music and sounds from video editing software packages. Once that was cleared up, the claims were dropped.

So – want to add music to your videos? Start out my using music you have legal access to. That’s the easiest fix. Then, if the song gets flagged anyway, follow through with the appeals process. Assuming you’re not using music you don’t have permission to use, you’ll probably make a successful appeal.

Something to think about!

 

Breezy, cloudy Sunday afternoon

A post shared by David Lee King (@davidleeking) on

Friending Customers using Instagram

By

For a library’s social media channels, I like to friend or follow other library customers when possible. So for Instagram, about once a month I will look at our followers list, see who’s new, and check out each account.

I will follow them back if:

  • It’s a public account. I don’t follow accounts marked Private. Don’t want to accidentally re-share something they wanted to [attempt] to keep private.
  • They live in my library’s service area.

Sometimes, figuring that out is a bit of a challenge! It’s easy when they mention Topeka, or NE Kansas, or something similar in their profile. If they don’t do that, I have to go hunting. I’ll browse through their photos to see if I recognize something that looks “Topeka-ish.” For example:

  • Photo of a recognizable Topeka building
  • Photo of a store or restaurant in Topeka
  • Topeka-related hashtag on a photo
  • I might just recognize the person
  • Sign photos – they sometimes have phone numbers on them (with a handy local area code listed)
  • If they link to something in their profile, I might click through to see if a local address or phone number is listed
  • A couple of people show off books they checked out … the library’s name is on the barcode sticker!
  • See the images in this post for a couple of examples of what I look for

I know – it sounds like a lot of work. But it’s really not. Once a month, I gather some social media stats. That’s when I friend people. All that takes less than an hour. It’s definitely worth that extra bit of time every month to help increase engagement on our social media channels!

Check out my library’s Instagram account (obviously, we won’t follow you unless you live here). Here’s mine, too – Follow me, and I might just follow you back 🙂

One more example: