Less than 24 hours of posting a copy of The Phantom of The Opera at YouTube.com – I get two copyright complaints about it. Come on, really? So which one of you really owns it? Clowns! I am in no way talking about YouTube.com – just to be clear. They are just doing what they have to do… I am talking about the two clowns making separate claims.
First of all, the 1925 version of Phantom of the Opera is in the public domain. I downloaded my copy directly from Archive.org – where it was listed as cc0 1.0. The music that was in the film was already there! I didn’t add it… nor do I really care about it. The score makes it interesting, but it was not the reason I posted the film. I was interested in sharing the film with those who enjoy media in the public domain and as an example of what is out there under the cc0 1.0 License.
I’m not trying to give anyone a hard time so I just went ahead and pulled the entire film – score and all. Seriously, I don’t think the copyright holder of a classical Schubert piece is trolling youtube for copyright violations… you know, considering Schubert died in 1828. No. It is likely someone that is trying to exploit the public domain by trying to be the only entity that can monetize off it. Go ahead. Enjoy yourself. If you know what I mean.