Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Revisiting Animoto

Last August I spent some time happily working with Animoto to update a library video (or two) and create a short technology Animoto video project based on snippets of information from CDWG's 21st Century Classroom Report 2010. The library video is happily living on my YouTube channel and embedded in a LibGuide highlighting library services. The technology video is embedded in my online class in Angel, or more appropriately it was part of my course. This evening, I received an email from the YouTube team announcing:

"Your video, 21st Century Classrooms, may have content that is owned or licensed by -----. No action is required on your part; however, if you are interested in learning how this affects your video, please visit the Content ID Matches section of your account for more information."

I spent time reviewing the information provided by YouTube's Copyright Overview Center, it seems the music accompanying my Animoto project was found to possibly be copyrighted and not available for use. I considered using AudioSwap and over-riding the audio track on the existing video, but ultimately went back to Animoto, remixed the video with a different audio track, uploaded the new video to YouTube, and deleted the offending video. I used the same audio track as selected for one of the library video projects; even though the other was more appropriate to the topic and images, there have been no problems reported with the library finished project. I am unsure how an audio track available to freely use with one entity causes copyright problems on another, but not naive enough to think it couldn't happen.

My librarian's heart is happy the potential copyright infringement has been resolved. Even better, the issue is resolved prior to working with video projects in class. Overall it’s been an interesting YouTube week for me; first I was contacted by Google Docs Community for permission to include my Google Docs videos in their revamped channel playlist - more on that later- and the second resulting in removal of a video.