Musica Cthulhiana track causes "Game summary" & "Browsing high scores" screen footage to receive music copyright claim on YouTube
Found in Infra Arcana 9/28/21 master Windows build 61e57fdf.
This issue is related to a discussion in issue #222 ("Make sure that sound files can be distributed as part of a Free Software product (check or replace)"), however that issue covers sounds generally, and also is currently tagged as an Enhancement rather than a bug.
A video of Infra Arcana gameplay that I uploaded to YouTube received a music copyright claim restriction: two segments in which I recorded the "Game summary" screen and following "Browsing high scores" screen after character death for at least 17 seconds, with the game's music playing ("Play ambient sounds" set to "yes" in Game Options), were flagged by YouTube as follows:
- Track: Musica Cthulhiana
- Claimed by: TuneCore
- On behalf of: Prowler/Ghost
YouTube would allow the video to remain with the claim active, however it would not allow the uploader to monetize the video themselves.
Theoretical reproduction steps (I have not tried to reproduce this):
- Run the game
- Make sure "Play ambient sounds" is set to "yes" in Game Options, that your sound is playing, and that you are set up to record sound as well as video
- Get a character killed in the game
- Record the subsequent "Game summary" and "Browsing high scores" screens for a minimum of 17 seconds (that was the shortest segment I had flagged; I have filmed shorter segments that did not get flagged by YouTube, and one longer one--1 minute+--that did get flagged)
- Upload the video to YouTube
- Wait for the video to process
--> The video may be flagged with a music copyright claim for those Game summary segments.
YouTube offered several resolution options, including swapping the music track in those segments, muting their sound, or cutting the segments entirely out of the video; since I also had commentary running through the segments, muting wasn't a great option, so I opted to cut them. A jump cut due to one such claimed scene deletion can be seen here on YouTube, where only a few seconds of "Game summary" are shown before the cut occurs, and the following "Browing high scores" screen is cut entirely; that cut spanned slightly over one minute of game of footage total.
From the sound of it, the same track from "Game summary" continues playing through the "Browsing high scores" and main menu screens; "Browsing high scores" was also cut in that example linked immediately above, but I have not yet had the main menu scenes flagged/cut.
Copyright claims from game footage will tend to discourage users from publicizing the game on YouTube.
Some games with music tracks that would trigger such claims have worked around it by having a game option that replaces the problematic tracks with other tracks during gameplay.
