SOPA has been feverishly and fiercely debated during the past month or so. Although it has not (yet) been implemented it seems that Soundcloud is already prepared. This week a remix of Trent Reznor track (which he allows to be published in a non-comercial context) was refused by a Soundcloud bot. Today I tried to resolve another barrier but things got from bad to worse.
In the past week I have received a message from Soundcloud stating that a work that EARLabs had uploaded was similar to a track by [ Oliver Wallace ] an artist that is totally out of the EARLabs genre territory. The track is “En El Tejado” part of Disney’s Peter Pan soundtrack. How in earth this can be mistaken for a track by Radboud Mens’s contribution to a fashion show for Wrangler is a big riddle to me. Listen to the track at [ Amazon ]
The track by Radboud made use of his own musical instruments plus a heartbeat sound and various other sounds that were derived from open source / freeware sources. The track contains a stomping four to the floor pace, quite different from Peter Pan’s soundtrack.
This is what we received from Soundcloud:
Our automatic content protection system has identified that your sounds, “Radboud Mens – Wrangler”, contain copyright material from the track “En El Tejado” which is a copyright work owned or administered by EMI UK. We’ve blocked the upload of your sounds for the time being.
What can I do about it?
If your sounds contain the copyright material in part only, you may edit your sounds to remove the copyright work and re-submit your sounds to SoundCloud.If your sounds contain copyright material in part only, you may edit your sounds to remove the copyright work and re-submit your sounds to SoundCloud.
If you believe that copyright material has been mistakenly identified in your sounds, or if you have used copyright material but have all necessary rights, licenses and permissions from the rights holder to upload and share this material on SoundCloud, you can dispute the claim by clicking on the link below.
So it turns out that it’s my responsibility to get this dispute solved. I set about settling this by clicking “I want to dispute the copyright claim.” What followed was a form where I needed to give a reason why I thought there was no infringement and give my personal contact data. Then I had to tick the boxes of all of the statements below:
I have a good faith belief that the above material has been removed or disabled as the result of a mistake or misidentification of this material to be removed. *I understand that SoundCloud may suspend or terminate my account if I knowingly misrepresent my rights in this material, and I may also be liable for damages (including costs and attorney’s fees) incurred by SoundCloud, the copyright owner or any authorized licensee. *
I will accept service of process from the rights holder making the allegations of infringement or an authorized agent of such person. *
I consent to the federal courts in the judicial district where I live (if you live in the United States), or I consent to the jurisdiction of any court or judicial district in which any SoundCloud company is located (if you live outside the United States). *
I understand that SoundCloud will share my contact information with the party making the allegations of infringement. *
I acknowledge that, except where SoundCloud is obliged by applicable law to publish or re-publish my material on receipt of a valid counter-notice, SoundCloud may decide at its discretion whether or not to publish or re-publish the material I uploaded. *
If SoundCloud publishes or re-publishes any material following receipt of this notice, I hereby agree to indemnify and shall keep fully and effectively indemnified SoundCloud Limited, and its shareholders, directors, employees and affiliates from and against any and all claims, costs, expenses, losses, liabilities and damages arising from any actual or alleged violation of any third party rights as the result of any material I have uploaded being made available on SoundCloud. *
By submitting this dispute your name and address will be disclosed to “EMI UK”
That’s where I stopped. As far as my English knowledge reaches this tells me that I have to prove that there is no infringement and that any legal or costs to do so are entirely to be paid by me. I find this totally outrageous. And frightening. Because some algorithm, not even a human being (mistakenly) matched this track with that of some ancient release by Emi I need to go trough all the hoops and financial risks of getting the track online. No way, Soundcloud!
What angers me is the Kafka-esque smoothness of the system. What they should have done was give me the opportunity to tell them calmly that there is a mistake and that they should have a human being make a comparison. If they insist in their opinion then they could start the legal stuff. Now I feel like I’m handed over to Guantanamo Bay.
