[HN Gopher] YouTube's eraser tool removes copyrighted music with...
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       YouTube's eraser tool removes copyrighted music without impacting
       other audio
        
       Author : thunderbong
       Score  : 74 points
       Date   : 2024-07-05 19:01 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (techcrunch.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (techcrunch.com)
        
       | umvi wrote:
       | "AI powered algorithm" or just plain old Fourier Transforms?
        
         | toxik wrote:
         | It is pretty hard to subtract a signal like that, if it's
         | really just signal C=A+B then maybe if you have exactly B you
         | can get A back from C, but with microphones picking up radio or
         | something like that? No shot
        
           | codetrotter wrote:
           | Also it has to be able to work on remixes that it doesn't
           | know about of the songs, etc.
           | 
           | All in all I'd say yeah this definitely requires some clever
           | engineering and I believe them that they use AI as part of
           | all of this.
        
         | spockz wrote:
         | I guess both. One to detect which waves are copyright protected
         | and the transformation to remove it.
        
         | AlyssaRowan wrote:
         | They're all actually AI powered, generally some form of real-
         | time RNN trained on identifying and isolating voice content
         | from background noise or music.
         | 
         | rnnoise2 is an open-source model that does very well. There
         | also are things like Waves Clarity VX, the Nvidia Broadcast
         | (Audio Effects SDK) too, as well as plenty of other solutions
         | like Supertone Clear, Krisp, etc etc etc.
        
           | CursedUrn wrote:
           | Does that mean youtube is AI generating your voice to "add it
           | back" after silencing that part of the video? Does it ever
           | generate different words to what you actually said?
        
       | delusional wrote:
       | I'm still waiting for Canon to release a tool to scrub pictures
       | of the buildings I own. What makes people believe they can just
       | post photos of my buildings? I purchased the rights to that
       | architecture.
        
         | toxik wrote:
         | You can't take a song photo, there is no permanent one unique
         | recording of a song that has to play forever for it to exist.
        
           | zamadatix wrote:
           | I'm not sure I follow. The equivalent to a photo of a visual
           | would be a recording of a audible. Whether either core thing
           | exists is independent of a specific recording in both cases.
           | 
           | The main difference in the above analogy is probably that a
           | photo is not a primary intended way for the architecture to
           | be consumed whereas it is for a song.
        
             | lttlrck wrote:
             | Substitute photo for 3D model of building for VR
             | consumption and it works better.
             | 
             | Also some music may be/is intended to be heard live. So the
             | recording/model analogy can certainly fit.
        
         | tmtvl wrote:
         | The way a piece of music is supposed to be experienced is not
         | the same as the way a building is supposed to be experienced.
         | Seeing the picture of a building is not the same as seeing the
         | actual building. Hearing a piece of music is the same as
         | hearing the piece of music.
        
           | skyyler wrote:
           | >Seeing the picture of a building is not the same as seeing
           | the actual building.
           | 
           | Sure, I agree with this.
           | 
           | >Hearing a piece of music is the same as hearing the piece of
           | music.
           | 
           | Gonna disagree there; in the same way that looking at a
           | picture of something isn't the same as looking at something,
           | hearing a recording of a performance is not the same as being
           | present for the performance.
           | 
           | The Treachery of Images, as Magritte called it.
        
           | Aloisius wrote:
           | Eh. Copyright doesn't care how something is meant to be
           | experienced.
           | 
           | In the US though, architecture copyrights don't protect
           | against people photographing building exteriors.
           | 
           | That said, if your building was covered in a mural or some
           | artistic facade that you held the copyright to, then one can
           | assert copyright against people posting videos of the
           | building on YouTube. Of course, there's exemptions for
           | various forms of fair use like critique.
        
           | freedomben wrote:
           | > Hearing a piece of music is the same as hearing the piece
           | of music.
           | 
           | This is way overly reductionist. Hearing a few notes of a
           | piece of music in the background with crappy quality is not
           | the same as hearing the full ucompressed piece with top of
           | the line equipment. It is remarkably analogous to seeing a
           | picture of building.
        
         | kaetemi wrote:
         | Look up the copyright drama regarding the Atomium in Brussels.
        
         | mikae1 wrote:
         | Reminds me of https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35969734
        
         | andrewmcwatters wrote:
         | !!
         | 
         | https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/business/use-image-of-eiffel...
        
       | sandworm101 wrote:
       | Incorrect title.
       | 
       | >> remove copyright-claimed music from your video
       | 
       | This tool will only remove music that has been reported/claimed
       | by someone and reported to youtube. It certainly cannot remove
       | all copyrighted music given that most all recorded music is
       | copyrighted already irrespective of youtube. This tool can remove
       | stuff that has been reported and shared with youtube's copyright
       | systems. That is a different thing than the title.
        
         | kelnos wrote:
         | I don't think the distinction really matters. If no copyright
         | claim has been made on some background music in a video, then
         | the person who posted the video need not care if that music is
         | copyrighted or not.
        
       | teeray wrote:
       | It'd be nice to have a fair use tool, identifying when
       | copyrighted music is a fair use.
        
         | mikae1 wrote:
         | Fair use doesn't exist in many jurisdictions (where artists may
         | come from). I would assume carpet bombing is easier than
         | surgery.
        
           | mananaysiempre wrote:
           | Fair use may not exist, but rights of citation or parody
           | still do.
        
         | ricardobayes wrote:
         | I know a few small youtubers who make "walk around" live-stream
         | type videos and they always struggle with music from bars etc.
         | It's always kind of funny when they attempt to talk over the
         | music or start walking faster. Kind of sad how megacorporations
         | can affect our behavior.
         | 
         | I hope this won't spill over to a general deterioration or
         | avoidance of music. People are really good at copying behavior
         | they see from people they see as "authoritative figures" and
         | influencers are that, for young people.
        
           | Waterluvian wrote:
           | I feel like if any meaningful amount of society adopted a
           | "avoid copyrighted music" behaviour, the problem would
           | resolve itself pretty fast.
        
             | TeMPOraL wrote:
             | Oh my, now I'm imagining a hipster bar that uses "only
             | playing non-copyrighted music" as a way to incentivize all
             | the wannabe youtubers and instagrammers and tiktokers to
             | record their content there.
        
               | Waterluvian wrote:
               | Human music!
        
               | BolexNOLA wrote:
               | Boop boop boop. Boop boop boop. Boop boop boop.
        
               | teeray wrote:
               | There is a brewery near me that plays only Grateful Dead
               | and anything before 19-whatever-it-is to avoid needing a
               | license to "perform" it.
        
             | spankalee wrote:
             | That roughly amounts to "avoid all recorded music" right
             | now.
             | 
             | If you don't like music, sure... but I'm not willing to be
             | that ascetic.
        
               | Waterluvian wrote:
               | No, the opposite. If people in large numbers are avoiding
               | music, then the industry will behave better about
               | copyright. They want people to listen to music.
        
               | talldayo wrote:
               | > If people in large numbers are avoiding music, then the
               | industry will behave better about copyright.
               | 
               | Has there ever been a significant point in history where
               | this has happened? It feels like the opposite happens;
               | when people conscientiously object to the music industry,
               | said industry doubles down on their authority to control
               | music. Radio license agreements, home taping, internet-
               | distribution and now the YouTube/social media era are all
               | punctuated by license-holders reaffirming their control,
               | fair use and popularity be damned.
        
               | Waterluvian wrote:
               | I have no sense that this will ever happen. More speaking
               | to the hypothetical being raised.
        
             | sandworm101 wrote:
             | So live music only. Nothing recorded. All original pieces
             | without sheet music or written lyrics. Nothing online or
             | ever via a digital system with a memory function. No
             | portable music players, not even 8-tracks. It would be one
             | big ren faire of wandering bards creating ad hoc songs for
             | coins.
        
               | Waterluvian wrote:
               | I was thinking more that it would cause companies to have
               | no choice but to chill out about copyright... but you're
               | kinda selling me on this vision instead.
        
         | geor9e wrote:
         | It would be nice to have free AGI lawyers, agreed
        
         | realusername wrote:
         | YouTube doesn't respect fair use anyways in any country.
        
           | teeray wrote:
           | Because copyright holders hate Fair Use
        
             | JoshTriplett wrote:
             | Which would be irrelevant except YouTube's copyright strike
             | system is effectively run by the copyright holders, and
             | thus goes far further than the law requires.
        
       | kernal wrote:
       | Not only Remove, but also Trum and even Replace the song.
        
       | jimbobthrowawy wrote:
       | I think they had a similar system before to replace all the audio
       | in your video with something from the youtube audio library. The
       | first thing in the list was a song called "009 Sound System
       | Dreamscape" which became notorious as the background audio for
       | tutorials where someone types into notepad due to this system.
       | 
       | I wonder what the pre-eminent audio library song is going to be
       | this time.
        
         | segmondy wrote:
         | Fitting AI generated music.
        
       | thih9 wrote:
       | Now we need a client side algorithm to add that back, perhaps
       | provided by a music platform where the user is a subscriber. I'm
       | sure streaming services would enjoy this kind of windfall.
        
         | scosman wrote:
         | Sync rights are expensive and complicated. Not covered in your
         | Spotify subscription.
        
           | mindslight wrote:
           | It's covered by my rtorrent subscription.
        
       | zamadatix wrote:
       | This is a much better approach, I like it. Does anyone have a
       | demo videos of this actually being used from when it was in beta?
       | The demo in the video about the feature doesn't demo the results,
       | just the UI.
        
       | kragen wrote:
       | i wonder if you can use this to make a viral video of someone
       | screaming like a lunatic by erasing the loud music they were
       | trying to be heard over. like the dean scream video that sunk the
       | howard dean presidential campaign
       | 
       | it's disturbing to me when youtube permits post-publication
       | editing of videos like this
        
       | Waterluvian wrote:
       | It feels quite plausible that soon enough we'll be able to ask it
       | to replace copyright music with generated "soundalike" music.
        
         | freedomben wrote:
         | We'll see. Rightsholders are doing everything they can to fight
         | that, and having the laws and giant corporations all doing
         | their bidding makes them much more powerful than "the people."
         | They will fight this with everything they have, which is a
         | considerable number of billions.
        
       | kelnos wrote:
       | I guess it's good that there's a new solution to this problem,
       | but I wish it just wasn't a problem in the first place. It's
       | ridiculous that someone can't just walk around outside, making a
       | video of what they're doing, and post it, without having to worry
       | that some copyrighted music is playing in the background for some
       | portion of it.
       | 
       | That sort of situation should be considered fair use, and
       | copyright owners who attempt to make trouble for people caught up
       | in this situation should be slapped down, hard, and fined.
        
         | prox wrote:
         | Agreed. It is stupid and vile to use a few words.
         | 
         | I am all for enforcement if it reaches a significant audience
         | with commercial interests. But now anyone for any reasons gets
         | this crap.
        
         | Jerrrry wrote:
         | They can, they just shouldn't expect to be paid for it.
        
           | vanchor3 wrote:
           | Personally I would say people should not be able to make
           | money off someone else's copyrighted content without
           | permission, but someone putting a lot of work into making a
           | good video and having someone else claim all the money over
           | 10 seconds of audio doesn't seem right either.
        
           | struant wrote:
           | Unless the purpose and value of the video is solely
           | distribution of the copyrighted music it should be protected
           | fair use. If copyright holders don't like it they are free to
           | not license their music to be played in public ever.
        
         | StableAlkyne wrote:
         | > walk around outside, making a video of what they're doing,
         | and post it, without having to worry that some copyrighted
         | music is playing in the background for some portion of it.
         | 
         | You can, this is called "incidental use" and is an exception to
         | copyright in the USA. If you're filming yourself going down the
         | street and someone starts playing a song, and you're not going
         | out of your easy to capture the copyrighted content, it is
         | legal.
         | 
         | YouTube's copyright strike system is more strict than the law,
         | probably to kowtow to the music companies serving the YouTube
         | Music product in exchange for not having to defend against a
         | lawsuit.
         | 
         | If we weren't subject to their monopoly on online video,
         | someone could just start telling copyright trolls to pound sand
         | when a frivolous complaint comes up.
        
           | talldayo wrote:
           | > If we weren't subject to their monopoly on online video,
           | someone could just start telling copyright trolls to pound
           | sand when a frivolous complaint comes up.
           | 
           | In principle, maybe. But realistically, even if we had a
           | competitive and healthy video hosting market, the RIAA would
           | still have a legal imperative to moderate those platforms.
           | Although we don't perceive them in direct competition with
           | YouTube, copyright takedowns still happen on TikTok, Twitter
           | and Instagram. Platforms of a certain size become targets for
           | IP holders, and platform-owners lack the time or
           | accountability to deal with each claim on a case-by-case
           | basis. It's less about finding a "someone" to tell-off
           | copyright trolls, and more about paying enough lawyers to
           | fight Sony & Friends when they make dubious claims.
           | 
           | It's a status-quo that sucks for us humans, but this is what
           | intellectual property laws look like as-applied to real life.
           | Art, video and even code are all obsessively licensed to
           | prevent the accidental proliferation of good ideas.
        
             | clob wrote:
             | It's also easier said than done to fend off intelligent and
             | determined legal adversaries.
        
           | RajT88 wrote:
           | It is pretty ridiculous what their copyright bots flag too.
           | 
           | I recorded a live performance of an orchestra in Barcelona at
           | some cathedral. Some version of the song got copyright
           | flagged. Really? Flagging live performances of (checks notes)
           | a song composed in 1954?
           | 
           | Just bananas.
        
         | SkyPuncher wrote:
         | > That sort of situation should be considered fair use, and
         | copyright owners who attempt to make trouble for people caught
         | up in this situation should be slapped down, hard, and fined.
         | 
         | It is considered fair use, but we're not dealing with
         | government law here. We're dealing with a private company's
         | TOS. In fact, Youtubes entire Copyright "strike" system is just
         | a layer in front of "proper" DMCA.
         | 
         | The large, corporate copyright holders are happy with the setup
         | since they can basically strike down anything they want without
         | worry of legal repercussions (which DMCA addresses). Youtube is
         | happy since the large copyright holders are happy. Small
         | creators get screwed over, but it doesn't really matter to
         | Youtube since there's essentially an endless supply of Youtube
         | content creators.
        
       | bmar wrote:
       | They should add AI that improves audio as well. Some older MIT
       | and Stanford course playlists have pretty bad audio. It would be
       | nice if they could just enhance the audio in place.
        
         | djmips wrote:
         | I use Nvidia's Broadcast tool to do it locally on my GPU in
         | realtime. It works fairly well and has made some older videos,
         | especially courses or presentations at conferences satisfactory
         | to watch but I agree it would be great if YouTube could
         | automatically provide it as a tool as well.
         | 
         | I'm hoping to find a tool that removes umms and ahhhs, mouth
         | clicks and other annoying tics.
        
       | OptionOfT wrote:
       | This is actually a better solution. If someone complains you can
       | scrub it and still maintain your full ownership of the video,
       | while still keeping your video watchable.
       | 
       | Replace is nice if it's only the song, but you lose any voice-
       | over.
       | 
       | Mute also loses your voice-over.
        
       | ajdude wrote:
       | This is essentially how Earworm[1] started
       | 
       | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlxuQ7tPgQ
        
       | londons_explore wrote:
       | I really wish the content id system was open to all.
       | 
       | Simply default to the first person to upload a piece of video to
       | the site 'owns' it. If you're a film studio or something you can
       | upload a video and set it to private to 'own' content before you
       | release it.
       | 
       | I get that technically scaling content id is hard, but it seems
       | like a solvable technical challenge considering the market
       | position it would give YouTube as the de facto copyright
       | reference index. _Everyone_ has to upload there first unless they
       | want to risk getting their content  'owned' by someone else and a
       | battle to get it reassigned.
        
       | Hizonner wrote:
       | Youtube's eraser tool removes any music that any moron or
       | bullshit artist has chosen to claim...
        
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