I was contacted by Sebastian last week – he owns a YouTube channel, where the music in 30 of his videos had been claimed by We Are Scammers, I mean, We Are Era.
This was the music in question – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONcInr-EgMc, which literally states in the description –
To use my Music in your videos, please COPY & PASTE this in your video description to properly Credit. 🩵🩷🌴 Song: Lichu – Beach Sunset Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music. Video Link:
Pretty standard stuff.
And of course, Sebastian has done his due diligence and properly credited the music in his videos.
Per what I tell everyone, Sebastian did appeal each of these claims, and successfully so.
Then something changed. He wrote –
After 30 successfully disputed copyright claims (only one went into appeal), we are era rejected an appeal and is now threatening a takedown and copyright strike if I do not withdraw my appeal within 7 days. I have contacted the producer of the song and he assured me that this is a scam and that they have no connection to we are era.
I told Sebastian they were bluffing, and to stand firm.
I gave him the email addresses of We Are Era (including someone I’ve dealt with directly about my own disputes). And I said if they did not respond favourably, to go nuclear and name and shame, like yours truly.
But Sebastian didn’t want to post anything publicly on YouTube; this was what he said –
My YouTube channel is about scuba diving. It’s my primary means of getting students and I don’t want to put any off topic content on it. That will hurt more than it helps as it won’t interest my core audience.
I thought about creating a new YouTube channel focused on that topic. But the truth is, stuff like that takes up a lot of time and I don’t have enough time as it is without wasting it on such a**holes. Depending on how this week goes, I might get a little extra motivation though.
He was interested in going down the legal route, which to me means unnecessary cost wasted on a bunch of cheap scammers with deeper pockets than you and me.
And for the record, many of you have reached out to me with the same reasons given by Sebastian – you don’t want to mess up your YouTube algorithm, you don’t want to waste time and energy on this, and with many more – you’re scared of losing your channel if you appeal.
Anyway I’d given Sebastian my advice, ie. send them a strongly-worded email with deadline and underlying threat of further action without specifying what (in my case, this ongoing public campaign against the company) – and I left it at that.
Sebastian wrote back –
I just wanted to give you a quick update. On Saturday evening, I have sent a rather friendly email to the general email address, but didn’t get a response so far. This morning, I have sent a more aggressive email to both the email addresses you provided. Let’s see if they react.
This morning, Sebastian sent me a screenshot of We Are Era’s response (copy-paste follows), saying,
Hi Sebastian,
Thank you for contacting We Are Era.
We represent the rights of our client SyncVault on YouTube, who in turn manage the rights of artists such as Lichu, TVARI, and Summer Martin, whose claims you are seeing on your video.
We were initially instructed to confirm and reinstate these claims. However, following your message, we have reached out to our client to request supporting documentation confirming ownership of the relevant assets on YouTube.
We will get back to you as soon as we receive the necessary information.
Thank you for your patience.
Kind regards,
— Digital Rights Management We Are Era
E.: hi.drm@weareera.com
Sebastian accompanied the screenshot with –
So this is what they replied to me. No idea what to make of it…
What does it actually mean? I translated it for Sebastian –
“Oops, you caught us, so we’re going to pass the blame onto our “client” – we’re going to demand they provide proof they own the music. In fact if you’re right (and you are) we’re victims too – they lied to us about owning the copyright”. Jackie M.
So folks, this is how these cheap scammers work. They push and push and try every trick in the book. Then when they’re called out, they pass the blame onto their “clients”, and the artists themselves.
Finally, Sebastian actually went back to Lichu (the artist who released the music, and whom We Are Era referenced in their email).
This was what Lichu said (copy-paste follows) –
I just checked.. I have no connection with “We Are Era Music BV” nor VNCM has connection with it.. They are fake strikers on youtube.. I searched it on Youtube “we are era music bv” and found that they have multuple fake copyright claimts and strike..
There you have it. As I’ve said before, if you know you’re right, stand up to these bullies. They have no legal leg to stand on, despite their threats of copyright strikes and whatever.