Does Guitarraviva sound familiar to you? Carlos Asensio is the one behind this story that we are going to tell you today. The story of a fight against record companies , which in turn fight against channels that are dedicated to music dissemination.
But, let us start at the beginning. Guitarraviva is a YouTube channel that Asensio founded eight years ago to teach others to play the guitar . It has been so successful during all this time that the channel has nothing more and nothing less than two million subscribers and more than 400 million views.
The founder of this channel has now published a video in which he denounces, according to him, the "harassment and demolition" by the multinational record companies that manage the copyrights of the songs. Warner participated in the last episode. The company has denounced a video in which Asensio teaches how to play the song A Horse With No Name , by America.
Curiously, in this video Asensio does not play the song at any time, but shows a couple of chords and the rhythm . He neither sings it nor hums it. Faced with such absurdity, Asensio wanted one of the biggest musical popularizers on YouTube to explain what happens in that video.
Jaime Altozano also has problems with copyright
Jaime Altozano, an important music popularizer, explains in this same video that he also often has problems with copyright and record companies, whose purpose is to strike down any trace of a song to which they have rights . This, despite the fact that these videos do not even sing or play the melody of it.
This is what has happened with the aforementioned video of Asensio, from the song A Horse With No Name . In this only two chords are shown that you have to know to be able to play the subject. The melody of the song is not sung at any time, nor is the lyrics recited. What are played are two chords, but as far as we know for now the chords are intangible heritage of humanity: E minor and D major with the ninth.
What Altozano does in his video is just play those chords. Which are the same as those used in Let it Be by the Beatles, in Perfect by Ed Sheeran or in The Edge of Glory by Lady Gaga. In fact, as the popularizer points out, these are the most used chords in pop history. And they're not copyrighted, no matter how much record companies try to get away with it.
YouTube's control system
YouTube has a control system that serves to detect any hint of violation of the copyright of songs that are protected. Record companies have access to this tool, so they can make complaints if it is observed that someone is making use of some content with rights.
Before the complaint, YouTube sends a notification to the author of the video , so that in this way it can be explained. Especially if you consider that the violation is not such. Carlos Asensio says that he doesn't upload songs. That most of the content he publishes on his channel is tutorials on how to play those songs. It explains the introduction, the chords, the rhythm, but does not upload versions ( covers ) or entire songs at any time .
In this sense, in addition, Asensio reminds that there is a law of legitimate use that protects the channel. Since it is perfectly possible to make use of protected content if the purposes are didactic. This in US law. But in the Intellectual Property Law, Article 32 includes what is called “right of appointment”, which would be practically the same.
Unfortunately, YouTube can do nothing more than what it does, although it is perfectly aware of the situation. If the complaint is successful, those responsible can keep the monetization of the video (which is the money that is collected for it). If they do not succeed, the video will be deleted and a strike will be made, the maximum allowed of three on YouTube. If they win the battle, Carlos could have the channel closed.