# "I Don't Own the Rights to this Music" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2020, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-own-the-rights-to-this-music/853582 "2020-05-11T14:21:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-own-the-rights-to-this-music/853582/1 "2020-05-11T14:21:59Z")
I’m posting this in GQ because the answer is either, “it is” or “it isn’t”. I’ve noticed over time in Facebook that, when some people make posts containing music, they add this disclaimer: “I don’t own the rights to this music.” I get the impression that they believe that disclaimer makes it okay for them to use the music in their post. My question is simply this. Is that true? My instincts say no. My reasoning being that just because I say I don’t own the rights to your car doesn’t give me permission to drive it away. On the other hand, I know zilch about copyright laws. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-own-the-rights-to-this-music/853582/2 "2020-05-11T14:28:07Z")
We’ve been over this many times. It doesn’t in any way legally protect them, and to the extent that such a statement would matter at all, it would make their case worse, not better. They’re confusing copyright violation with plagiarism. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-own-the-rights-to-this-music/853582/3 "2020-05-11T14:31:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > We’ve been over this many times. It doesn’t in any way legally protect them, and to the extent that such a statement would matter at all, it would make their case worse, not better. They’re confusing copyright violation with plagiarism. Yeah. If you walked out of a store with something you hadn’t paid for, you could argue that you had done it accidentally - but this is more like walking out waving the object over your head and yelling “I didn’t pay for this!” ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-own-the-rights-to-this-music/853582/4 "2020-05-11T15:15:51Z")
Thanks, guys. That’s what I figured, but I just wanted to make sure. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-own-the-rights-to-this-music/853582/5 "2020-05-11T16:10:45Z")
So, has Facebook and YouTube and the like recently introduced software that very effectively detects copyrighted music? There’s been a lot of threads about this here recently, and the topic is popping up frequently online. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-own-the-rights-to-this-music/853582/6 "2020-05-11T16:16:11Z")
Sorry to bring up an old topic, but I’ve honestly not seen a single one of those threads. Of course, I was working exclusively from home for 5 weeks and didn’t check in. Maybe they were during that time period. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-own-the-rights-to-this-music/853582/7 "2020-05-11T16:22:19Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > So, has Facebook and YouTube and the like recently introduced software that very effectively detects copyrighted music? > > There’s been a lot of threads about this here recently, and the topic is popping up frequently online. Assuming this isn’t a whoosh: YouTube has had it since 2007–it’s called [ContentID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_ID_(system)). I don’t know how long Facebook has had them. Both companies, however, have deals set up with the big publishers and statements in their user agreements to not have to actually take stuff down. Copyright owners can instead choose to just get money from it, and usually do. An exception a Doper ran into recently were the Beatles, who would not allow him to use their music in the background of one of his videos on YouTube, even if he set them to private for his own viewing only. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-own-the-rights-to-this-music/853582/8 "2020-05-11T18:12:01Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Assuming this isn’t a whoosh: YouTube has had it since 2007–it’s called [ContentID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_ID_(system)). I don’t know how long Facebook has had them. Not a whoosh, I just don’t care much about this topic as it applies to those apps. It was started in 2007 but appears to have taken off a few years later.