Photo: Taylor Swift – pawn in a copyright game? | A U.S. police officer played a Taylor Swift song on his phone in a bid to prevent activists who were filming him uploading the video to YouTube. The video platform regularly removes videos that break music copyright rules.
However, the officer’s efforts were in vain as the clip of the encounter in Oakland, California promptly went viral.
Alameda County police told the BBC it was not “approved behaviour”.
The video was filmed by members of the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP), which says it is a coalition that seeks to “eradicate police terror in communities of colour”.
Some of them were protesting outside the courthouse at the pre-trial hearing of a San Leandro officer charged with the manslaughter of a black man.
In the video, the officer says: “You can record all you want, I just know it can’t be posted to YouTube.”
When asked if playing music in this way is procedure, the officer responds: “It’s not specifically outlined.”
Later in the video, he confirms: “I’m playing music so that you can’t post on YouTube.”
The sheriff’s department said: “We have seen the video and referred it to our internal affairs bureau. This is not approved behaviour. It will not happen again.”
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How is copyright enforced online?
While video-sharing platforms and social networks do use automated systems to flag and remove copyright material, the rules vary.
YouTube has a number of copyright management tools, including a system called Content ID.
“Videos uploaded to YouTube are scanned against a database of files that have been submitted to us by content owners,” it says.
Copyright owners can then decide whether to block, monetise or track the content.
But the idea that playing copyright music could be a tactic used by police to avoid sharing online and on social media has attracted serious attention following the removal of activist videos.
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Read the whole story here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57698858