*****EDIT NUMBA 2******

New suggestion!

Use music from the company UMG.

I dunno about other people but I had 3 videos with an attempted claim from UMG. But they were never removed or muted, and now all it says is 'claim retracted', meaning they just left my video alone and allowed it to stay. UMG seems really forgiving.

So if you wanna use a song, I suggest look it up on Wikipedia. A song/band page will usually also show what record company it's for, and chances are it's either WMG or UMG. WMG can suck my left nut, UMG has been very nice. And on a happy note, I looked up Ozone (The people who made Numa) and that's owned by UMG... so I'm happy.

*****EDIT NUMBA 2******


Everyone on YT has had their fair share of fuck-overage I'm sure. Just recently I experienced some of the worst of it myself; Before I only had to change audio on two lesser videos, changing the music was no big deal. But last night I found out three of my more personal favorites had been taken down: Silent Hill Particle Man, Richards Story (Snakes are a Pain), and Welcome to Africa. I've already changed the audio, and proceeded to upload them on a different video website (I'll link it at the end of the post). I might of been too hasty, now that some information has come to my attention, but I hope the information I'll share will be a help to everyone for future references.

*OPTION 1 - DISPUTE!*

The most intriguing information so far I got from the help of pigfish99 (YT). He sent me this link: [link]

If you follow that link, YT user DarkxiderX basically explains that all he simply had to do was dispute the claim made against his removed video. He says that his video was purely fan made, non profit, and properly credited. With that said, his claim was lifted the next day. Now, I don't know if it's only with certain songs/companies/artists where it's that lenient, but I think that video is enough to encourage people to at least try to dispute a claim. The worst that can happen is getting ignored. I'm not 100% sure HOW to do this though, as I've never done it myself, you'll have to look around. Also, another important note: Once you do an audio swap it's PERMANENT. You cannot restore your video to it's original audio. So don't make the same mistake I did; at least TRY to dispute before changing or muting your audio!

**EDIT ONE**
A few sources now have told me that if your dispute is rejected, your account may face a penalty as sever as FULL video deletion, or even account suspension. I wasn't aware of this until just now so DO AT YOUR OWN RISK. But, what they mean by that is that if you simply lie. DO NOT LIE. Do not say you have permission to use a song if you really don't. Don't claim to own the song either. And don't constantly send them complaints/emails. Constant bothering and disputing when you've already once been rejected will also result in penalty. It may not be the best way to go about it after all, but one try without lying shouldn't hurt.
**EDIT ONE**

*OPTION 2 - SPECIAL YT LINK*

I'm also looking into a certain link that seems to be somewhat of a scapegoat for certain music/companies/artists. Maybe some of you have noticed, but here's an example of what I mean: [link]

If you notice there's a small link/picture on the right, this one in particular says "Contains Content From: Rick Astley Official Channel". To take an educated guess, I'm assuming this only applies for music/songs/artists that have their own official YT accounts. I'm still looking into exactly how to attain that link, because I'm almost positive that having that link will immunize your video from copyright infringement. I'll post the info when I find it.

*OPTION 3 - LEAVE OUT TITLE*

Some of my friends have brought to my attention that in some cases if you leave out a song title/artist, then it's a lot harder to track down and flag the video. Like, leave the song titles/artist out of the main title, description and video tags. This only works SOMETIMES though and probably isn't 100% effective. For example, my FAQ2 video had no such mention, but somehow was discovered and flagged anyway. So be careful with it.

*OPTION 4 - DIFFERENT SONG VERSIONS*

This isn't a tested theory yet, but as some of you may be aware, videos of covered songs (amateur fans playing well-known songs) are not taken down from YT. The same appears to go for karaoke versions of songs, as well as remixes. So, if you get permission from the one(s) covering the song or creator of the remix/karaoke and use those versions instead, chances are you wont have your video taken down for copyright. Maybe even covers by other mainstream bands are accepted, but I'm not positive. I may do this with my removed videos later on.

*OPTION 5 - DON'T GO MAINSTREAM*

It seems that the only removed videos/songs are mainstream American, even much older American music. Music from things such as video games, anime, TV shows and generally anything un-American (company) seem to remain untouched, so if you can take a good song from one of those categories and use it well in a video, go for it! As always though use proper credit in case it IS removed, you still might be able to dispute the claim.

Hopefully this information can help some people out who either lost videos, or lose videos in the near future. If you yourself have any information that I might've missed or can add on to, just let me know. This copyright stuff is kinda bullshit. If YT were to really be a 100% original content site, the only thing left would be like.... V-Loggers. I mean if you wanna get technical, they'd have to remove Smosh videos, like for example the video that made them big: Singing the Pokemon theme song. I'm pretty sure Smosh doesn't own that song, so that's an infringement right there. And hell, Smosh makes MONEY from YT so that's even worse if you look at it that way! (I'm not tryin' to bash Smosh, it's just a good example of why YT is getting corrupttarded).

**EDIT TWO**
I've heard from a source that YT is not fully responsible for video deletions, but it's more along the lines of Warner Music Company (and others). Apparently there is a huge 'war' going on between Google and Warner, and the artists/bands themselves are furious over the silencing of free publicity. I'm not sure what WE can do about it, but it's not exactly Youtube's fault per say.
**EDIT TWO**

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As for my videos, I changed the audio on them sadly, so it's too late for me to make a claim or anything like that. But I have began uploading them onto another video site, temporarily. I might even upload the originals again someday to YT, or maybe with cover songs as mentioned. We'll see. For now, you can find them here: [link]

-Leggy

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Mj......... Zero....... Rich...... Vix....... Leon..... Envy...... Ryman