A very old friend asked me a question about YouTube (okay, clarification: it's not that my friend is very old, our friendship is) but, as I'm not a YouTube aficionado, I thought I could pose his question here.

During the sixties he had a popular band called My Indole Ring and, a few years ago, there was a resurgent interest that resulted in a vinyl album release 25 years after the band disbanded.

One of his sons designed a website which he recently redesigned and linked to some old videos of the band that had been posted on YouTube. After a few days two of the videos were replaced on the MyIndoleRing site by the message "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation".

John wondered: "What violation? The videos were of me and my band, performing tunes we wrote and a traditional. If anyone has a right to use them, it has to be me."

Sounds to me like a good point. Anyone have any experience with "violations" at YouTube?

ryck

Yes. The terms of use are a very stupid thing. here they are Most likely, it was a misunderstanding, and he can file a dispute claim.

Thank you my OLD friend. Nicely put.

JDK

Maybe you can feel honored by it, in some way? (I'm not being snarky or disingenuous)

Yes, it's a P.I.T.A., but check this out:

A friend of mine from Winnipeg plays some Chopin on his grand piano, and builds a slide show for display on YouTube. He got the same notice.

The material is 160 years old (give or take) and not subject to any of that restrictive B.S.! The only thing it could be is that their audio fingerprint I.D. algorithms think it was a protected recording of a more contemporary artist. Stupid, but kind of flattering.

In his case I told him to get in touch with the EFF, and any other organization that might help "the little guy" fight the behemoth.

It's a system far from perfect that's for sure. If you're interested, there's a guy who made a pretty extensive study of how to circumvent the restrictions, with practically no noticeable change in your audio files. Read here: http://www.csh.rit.edu/~parallax/

(BTW...cool band name. Takes me back to my old hobby of "studying" organic chemistry).

Thanks. It is kind of goofy that those who wrote the originals, or who arranged public domain material, would be prevented from using it.

I visited the parallax site and must say that, while Smitelli describes his work as "marginally scientific", it's actually pretty good - and his sense of humour is great. Some good laughs in there.

ryck

Just now checking out your website stuff. Cool legacy, man...it deserves to be re-unearthed.

Here's some just for fun stuff...

Out-of-the-blue question: Ever heard of Central Pennsylvania's Billy Synth & the Turnups/Punk Rock Janitors/Crackd Records/Psychedelic Unknowns? Bill created quite a legacy of indie vinyl releases of little-known US/North American garage/punk/psychedelic bands on his Crack'd Records label...many issues are now highly collectible in their original form—rare for compilations. I don't know how widespread Indole's popularity was, but you'd've fit right in to the roster of stuff he compiled & released.

Billy's career synopsis, for your amusement: http://attackingthebeat.blogspot.com/2009/05/quick-one-billy-synth.html

Thanks Phos...., but........

You want to give your compliments to the guy who deserves them....3 posts up the thread....Johnnytheeye. He's my old friend and the person you see on the video - as well as a new member of FineTunedMac.

ryck

Oh, yeah. Oops! Hopefully he'll be back to pick up the thread. I have a special love for great underdog/unknown bands and the various regional histories of music scenes around the country. For years I've been trying to light a fire under the butts of the local musicians I know here in SE Central PA to gather together all old music, promo material, stories, etc. It's tough enough overcoming my own inertias, let alone motivate people to overcome theirs!

Thanks Phos... I really appreciate your words.

The sixties were a great time for lots of stuff but nothing could beat having a band. We had a great time together and we were lucky to be able to play with a lot of great groups who passed on a lot of knowledge. Music will always be my great passion and I listen to everything.

Thanks for the Billy Synth tip. I wasn't aware of him but I will check out the site.

Good luck with your local history idea. Even if it's tough to get it going, it's worthwhile. Every city has a history of musicians come and gone who were really talented but just didn't get the breaks. Now all that's left is a bunch of local people wondering 'whatever happened to?'

All the best,
johnnytheeye