Sigh. I really did not want to have to resort to this, but this has been a problem in the fandom overall for far too long. What is this problem? Music theft.
Some of you may know that I have repeatedly asked people NOT to upload my songs to youtube, yet despite this, it is a recurring problem, and I am not alone. My fellow composers LucasPucas, Jimmythebassist, Jamangar, ZacharyChang, among others, repeatedly have their songs taken without consent by Youtubers such as Herobrine TV, Yeah, Outershift Chara, TheYazzer, TylerNess, Horse Burgers YT, Oka C-Fox, FreddyGaming CH, CrazyArtPhoenix, The DVLPR, and others. I will add to this list as needed.
Allow me to make one thing clear: None of us are okay with this. I speak with these composers on a regular basis, both in the IF and Storyshift Discords, and we are all sick of this.
You may think it is harmless. You may even think this is exposure for our work, but here’s the thing: these people are getting traffic and subscribers for content they did not create, and sometimes they don’t even credit! Or worse yet, rename the tracks and try to parade them as works for AUs the original composers do not even like.
Even worse, they ignore blatant requests not to take our content. For example, my Soundcloud profile states, and I quote: “**IMPORTANT**: People have been uploading my songs to their youtube
accounts without my permission. Please do not do this. I know a lot of
my stuff isn’t up there yet, but I do plan to bring it over in time. If
you want to use my songs for any reason, I’d like credit, and asking
permission is preferred.“
Never mind all the descriptions where I also reiterate that I do not want reuploads. Because the fact of the matter is, reuploads take traffic away from the original creator, and when people don’t link back or hide the credit under lengthy descriptions, it leads people to believe that the uploader is the composer, when all they did was lazily take someone else’s work and slap it into a video editor.
I will take a moment to note that Umbra Extensions is actually one of the few music channels on Youtube that not only asks permission, but does his best to give credit where due. If more people were like Umbra Extensions, I would not be making this post.
But the actual focus of my PSA is TheYazzer, who has not only taken a great deal of my Inverted Fate music and that of others, but he has monetized it. See for yourself:
But you wanna know the kicker? I had actually commented and asked him to remove the video…
And for a while, it seemed like he did… only for him to put it back up behind my back. Others have noticed this, and commented accordingly. Some friends have provided screencaps here and here, in case the uploader decides to “hide the evidence,” as it were. I would link the video itself, but since this chap decided he could make money off of my work, I don’t want to give him more fodder.
I have submitted a copyright claim, and I will continue to do this for any videos that take my content without consent. However, the fact that I even have to go this far represents a huge problem in the Undertale music community. Musicians are not being treated with the respect they deserve.People assume that they can just snatch music, slap it together as a video compilation, and reap the spoils.
This has to stop. I doubt it will, but if spreading this message can make even the slightest difference, then I am sure as hell gonna try. So please, if you enjoy our music, please reblog. It will help us all out tremendously.
Thank you for your time. Your regularly scheduled IF content will return shortly
PS. I am still okay with use of my music in fandubs if credit is given. It is the shameless stealing that I do not allow.
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