Can I display Lyrics and Sheet Music inside my Piano song tutorial videos?

[quincy]

Nope. What you quoted is not entirely accurate.

“Teaching is fair use” is an incorrect statement. And not all criticism or commentary or news reporting or research or scholarship is fair use.

These categories fall within the Copyright Act’s fair use guidelines but this does not mean all uses will be fair uses of copyrighted material just because they fall in one of these categories.

From where did you copy that information?

You need to credit your sources - and, as a note, reprinting copyright-protected material without authorization is also copyright infringement.

edit to add: I see you added to your post a link to the source. Thank you. I suggest others read the source rather than your partial quotes.

 

[quincy]

Exactly.

YouTube allows to dispute any copyright claims when appropriate and there is a counter notification and court proceedings process (that the copyright holder needs to complete within 10 days and furnish proof). My videos are not cover songs, they are pure tutorials, I’m teaching music and how to play songs showing keyboard notes. My videos are not original songs, they don’t have the vocals, I use 100% of my own sounds and i own copyrights for their sound recording while the melody copyright belongs to the publisher. I’m transforming the songs by eliminating the vocals, using 100% of my own sounds in the category of Education.

Sometimes my videos mistakenly get copyright claimed by YouTube’s algorithms after I upload them, I dispute under Fair Use which goes to the publisher and they remove the claim because knowingly and fraudulently declining Fair Use could get them sued under 17 USC Section 512(F) and their channel could get a strike too for fraud (3 strikes and they lose their channel forever just like any other channel does). I’m not taking away the commercial purpose or value of the songs I’m teaching, my tiny niche audience is music learners and not the same as the large casual audience of the original song, the publisher won’t lose any revenue from my tutorials. If anything, they will make more sales of their songs. I understand song videos need sync license but YouTube works around it by letting copyright holders run ads on such videos. My videos are not copyright claimed and not monetized by copyright holders.

My question was about displaying lyrics and scrolling sheet music horizontally (in a single Stave) corresponding to the notes of the song being played and if that would be Fair Use. If I’m displaying keyboard notes for the song under Fair Use anyway as tutorial, would it be Fair Use to display lyrics and sheet music notes for the corresponding notes of the song being played? What I was wondering was if I display 1-3 lines of lyrics and 1 line of scrolling sheet music any time for the notes currently being played, that may be like an “excerpt“ at any time and none of these lyrics or sheet music is downloadable.

If lyrics are “public” inside the song when we listen to it, are they considered private and forbidden to be displayed inside a tutorial video? I’m not offering anything for download. If I really want to sell sheet music, I could legally list it on MusicNotes or JellyNote for sale (like some teachers do) who take care of distributing revenue to copyright holders properly.

Would it be fair use to use the original thumbnail of the song video as part (reduced size down to about 75%) of my thumbnail on my tutorial video - with the image of the keyboard at the bottom of the thumbnail at 25%?

Yes, thanks -

Fair use will not permit you to merely copy another’s work and profit from it, but when your use contributes to society by continuing the public discourse or creating a new work in the process, fair use may protect you.

criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;
4. and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

(for #4, unless the singer/publisher is also in the business of creating piano tutorial videos, how will it hurt their song sales?)

• A use that transforms the original work in some way is more likely to be a fair use; (check)
• A non-profit use is more likely to be considered a fair use than a for-profit use; (please see below - profit has nothing to do with fair use)
• A shorter excerpt is more likely to be a fair use than a long one; and
• A use that cannot act as a replacement for the original work is more likely to be a fair use than one that can serve as a replacement (check)

A common misconception is that any for-profit use of someone else's work is not fair use and that any not-for-profit use is fair. In actuality, some for-profit uses are fair and some not-for-profit uses are not; the result depends on the circumstances. Courts originally presumed that if your use was commercial it was an unfair exploitation. They later abandoned that assumption because many of the possible fair uses of a work listed in section 107 preamble such as uses for purposes of news reporting, are conducted for profit. Although courts still consider the commercial nature of the use as part of their analysis, they will not brand a transformative use unfair simply because it makes a profit. Accordingly, the presence of advertising on a website would not, in of itself, doom one’s claim to fair use.

If you include additional text, audio, or video that comments or expands on the original material, this will enhance your claim of fair use. (check)

====================
I can live with not being able to display lyrics and sheet music inside my tutorial videos under fair use but my videos are fair use (at least on YouTube).

If you search YouTube for any “song + piano tutorial”, there are hundreds of videos.
Cover songs are not fair use (even though I wish they were - when things like parody are allowed).
Lyric videos are not fair use because they use the original audio as-is and add lyric sentences to it.

Also, we do not need to seek permission or license for fair uses.

Profit has nothing to do with fair use if it is transformative.
Teaching is fair use.
Transforming others’ work is covered under fair use.
(please see above)

Why would I promote someone else’s work for free?? What would I get from it?

I have quoted your newer posts above because I failed to quote them earlier.

There is a difference between “transforming” a copyrighted work and creating a “derivative” of the copyrighted work. Creating a derivative is one of the exclusive rights of a copyright holder and requires permission from the copyright holder.

 

[servicemark]

Nope. What you quoted is not entirely accurate.

“Teaching is fair use” is an incorrect statement. And not all criticism or commentary or news reporting or research or scholarship is fair use.

These categories fall within the Copyright Act’s fair use guidelines but this does not mean all uses will be fair uses of copyrighted material if they fall in one of these categories.

From where did you copy that information? Is that from YouTube’s terms and conditions?

You need to credit your sources - and, as a note, reprinting copyright-protected material without authorization is also copyright infringement.

All that info is from the last link you provided.

http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/fair-use

 

[servicemark]

Copyrights explained -

(some videos on copyrights posted by YouTube staff are misleading)

 

[quincy]

All that info is from the last link you provided.

http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/fair-use

Ah. You did not quote the material correctly. You left out some important words. And you added some additional words.

The YouTube video you just posted has been reported for moderator review.

 

[servicemark]

YouTube doesn’t do it right, Even if we use 30 seconds of a 300 second song in our 10 minute video, they give full credit of our video to the original author and let them monetize it 100% instead of giving them just 10% of the revenue - even though YouTube has ALL the data of how much of the original work is used in the video. But they distribute revenue among multiple copyright holders. There is more - even the revenue sharing from the 30 seconds (10% of the original audio) should be divided 50-50 because audio is 50% and my own video is 50% (check out “copyrights explained” video by Tessa Violet - she goes deep into presenting how copyrights work in the industry and also on YouTube)

 

[servicemark]

I have quoted your newer posts above because I failed to quote them earlier.

There is a difference between “transforming” a copyrighted work and creating a “derivative” of the copyrighted work. Creating a derivative is one of the exclusive rights of a copyright holder and requires permission from the copyright holder.

My work is transformative as I use 100% of my own sounds and video without vocals and none of the audio or video is used from the original audio/video.

 

[quincy]

YouTube doesn’t do it right, Even if we use 30 seconds of a 300 second song in our 10 minute video, they give full credit of our video to the original author and let them monetize it 100% instead of giving them just 10% of the revenue - even though YouTube has ALL the data of how much of the original work is used in the video. But they distribute revenue among multiple copyright holders. There is more - even the revenue sharing from the 30 seconds (10% of the original audio) should be divided 50-50 because audio is 50% and my own video is 50% (check out “copyrights explained” video by [name removed] - she goes deep into presenting how copyrights work in the industry and also on YouTube)

The video you apparently are promoting is not by an intellectual property lawyer - or any lawyer, for that matter. She’s a songwriter.

If you are using copyrighted sheet music to teach your piano lessons, your use is not transformative.

YouTube sets up its own rules. If users do not follow their rules, their accounts can be terminated, and if users do not like the rules, the option is to not use YouTube.

 

[servicemark]

The video you apparently are promoting is not by an intellectual property lawyer - or any lawyer, for that matter.

YouTube sets up its own rules. If users do not follow their rules, or if they do not like the rules, the option is to not use YouTube.

She is not a lawyer but a long time musician with 2M followers and knows stuff and she admits it too. It is the best video I found in years of searching on copyrights. There is nothing like it and nothing misleading in it.

 

[quincy]

She is not a lawyer but a long time musician with 2M followers and knows stuff and she admits it too. It is the best video I found in years of searching on copyrights. There is nothing like it and nothing misleading in it.

Okay ... but you still do not seem to be understanding copyright - or YouTube - very well, so you might not want to rely too much on that particular video lesson. The songwriter’s video explains mostly how musical artists get paid for their works, on YouTube and elsewhere.

 

[servicemark]

If you are using copyrighted sheet music to teach your piano lessons, your use is not transformative.

I agree with the (entire) sheet music part using it for teaching.

I was wondering if I’m showing only parts of sheet music for the notes being played (like excerpts) and it is not downloadable. Also if I’m showing the lyrics only for the notes being played (like excerpts) and it is not downloadable either.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Zigner]

I agree with the (entire) sheet music part using it for teaching.

I was wondering if I’m showing only parts of sheet music for the notes being played (like excerpts) and it is not downloadable. Also if I’m showing the lyrics only for the notes being played (like excerpts) and it is not downloadable either.

Thanks for your time.

I can download any video from YouTube.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

by original thumbnail, I meant to say the thumbnail of the original YouTube song video.

That would almost certainly be a violation of copyright protection.