Grimrock

So I just got a notice of a copyright claim via content ID match on one of my Grimrock videos I recorded 4 years ago.

content

(More Rain) - M. Ward
Sound recording
1:24 - 1:55

claimant

[Merlin] PIAS
[Merlin] Liberation Music
On behalf of: [PIAS]

Here's the video with a time code directly to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MXHroEAqc8#t=84

I looked up the supposed "song".. here's a full album video with the "song" right at the start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q45Whplcdg8

It sounds identical.

Personally, I don't care that it's claimed and can't be monetized since I'm a nobody, but I'd still like Almost Human to comment about this situation.

Was part of the ambient 'music' part of copyrighted or licensed content or was it all original work or free domain?
Did the artist use ambient 'music' from Grimrock as part of their original work for commercial profit?

Seeing as the release date of the album was in March 2016, I am assuming they either used the same source track that was used in Grimrock via a third party, or they actually took part of Grimrock's ambient music and used it in their work.

Needless to say, I'm really interested to hear the truth on what's going on.

M.Ward track date: 2016
Your video and LoG date: 2012

Now the ambient track of LoG is a lot older.
It is already in LoG's predecessor project "Escape from Dragon Mountain" and the ambient track dates back to 2004.

My take is that M.Ward took parts of the LoG ambient track and added more stuff to it.

It's more likely that both the Grimrock 1 track and that song use the same third-party sound effect. I know a lot of the Grimrock sounds are partly or entirely composed of stuff from e.g. freesound, rather than all original recordings/generation, and I imagine it's the same for the ambient tracks.

I think that is probably it; sound library samples, but that doesn't mean that the system itself isn't bogus to begin with. A couple years ago, the talk show host Jay Leno played a man's Youtube Video on a Tonight Show segment ~without permission. Shortly after... that man's original video, on his own Youtube channel, was flagged as a copyright violation of NBC property.

If you listen close... You can hear the Windows XP shutdown sample in the ambient dungeon track of LoG1.

Another one of my videos was hit.

Still no response from the developers?

How about telling YouTube that the copyright claimed "sound" in your videos actually comes with the game?

You can also link them to this video made in 2009 from LoG's predecessor Escape from Dragon Mountain. Maybe that'll shut their claim up. I'd like to hear the explaination of M.Ward how a project being online 3 years before his earliest composition attempt could have stolen from him.

Dr.Disaster wrote:How about telling YouTube that the copyright claimed "sound" in your videos actually comes with the game?

I was going to, but I want an official comment from Almost Human first.

Filing a copyright dispute on Youtube is quite serious and I can't just say something like "it's used in a commercial game before this". I need solid facts to base the dispute on, which only the developer can provide.

It's looking like they don't read their own forum though.. guess I have to resort to e-mailing somebody at the company.

DAOWAce wrote:

Dr.Disaster wrote:How about telling YouTube that the copyright claimed "sound" in your videos actually comes with the game?

I was going to, but I want an official comment from Almost Human first.
Filing a copyright dispute on Youtube is quite serious and I can't just say something like "it's used in a commercial game before this". I need solid facts to base the dispute on, which only the developer can provide.
It's looking like they don't read their own forum though.. guess I have to resort to e-mailing somebody at the company.

I've filed plenty of Copyright Disputes with my own Youtube channel, and never had a problem. When it's something legit - I used a song, and it got flagged - fine, I take it down. But game sounds? When those get a claim; I always file a counter, and within a week or two, it's always been cleared.