Including photos of pages from prominent drum exercise/method books in Youtube videos?

flamateurhour

Active Member
Hi all,

Working on developing an instructional YT series. I'd love to use Ted Reed's Syncopation throughout and was curious if any of you have run into issues with displaying images of the contents of the pages?

I started working on rhythm exercises to gradually introduce new rhythmic concepts to the viewer and quickly realized that I was just re-writing syncopation (badly I might add).

Thanks in advance!
 
I'm not a copyright attorney, but I would practice caution when promulgating published content online. Owning material (e.g., a book you've purchased) doesn't necessarily grant you the right to present it on YouTube, even though your goal is to teach rather than to reproduce and distribute. If I were you, I would confirm my intentions with appropriate authorities before proceeding. It's wiser to cover your bases beforehand than to confront a legal conflict down the line.
 
I'm not a copyright attorney, but I would practice caution when promulgating published content online. Owning material (e.g., a book you've purchased) doesn't necessarily grant you the right to present it on YouTube, even though your goal is to teach rather than to reproduce and distribute. If I were you, I would confirm my intentions with appropriate authorities before proceeding. It's wiser to cover your bases beforehand than to confront a legal conflict down the line.

You can’t copyright a drumbeat. I think it would be fine to display a couple/three exercises. A quick google search turns up whole-page excerpts from some books. Anything beyond a few exercises would be at least rude, though.
 
I'm definitely going to use extra caution with this
It's wiser to cover your bases beforehand than to confront a legal conflict down the line.
Thank you for the advice. I'll do my due diligence.

But the book. It costs like $6. Tell the viewers to buy it.

I'm introducing the book pretty early into the series and was worried that any cost at all may dissuade my viewers from jumping on, but honestly, you're totally right.

My main reasoning to use images was because each video will be designed to play along to from beginning to end, so I'm just trying to limit the amount of materials needed to participate. I have this weird thing where I feel guilty creating a barrier to entry, even if it's just a mere $6-12 price tag.
 
You can’t copyright a drumbeat. I think it would be fine to display a couple/three exercises. A quick google search turns up whole-page excerpts from some books. Anything beyond a few exercises would be at least rude, though.

Yeah, it's the principal of it that would keep me from displaying pages. I've relied heavily on this book and have a lot to owe to it. I'd feel really down if there was an issue and felt as though I had disrespected one of basically three books that have been responsible for me knowing drums.
 
You can’t copyright a drumbeat. I think it would be fine to display a couple/three exercises. A quick google search turns up whole-page excerpts from some books. Anything beyond a few exercises would be at least rude, though.

Maybe not a drumbeat, but when you start referencing a published text, you're incorporating more than rhythmic patterns alone. Using copywritten material without proper permission could get dicey. I'd rather be safe than sorry in this case.
 
You can’t copyright a drumbeat. I think it would be fine to display a couple/three exercises. A quick google search turns up whole-page excerpts from some books. Anything beyond a few exercises would be at least rude, though.

Syncopation is not public domain, and its pages are owned by the publisher. Not everyone has Google’s team of lobbyists at their disposal.
 
I wouldn't be just scanning the book and putting it in your videos. I've used scanned examples occasionally on my site, but mostly I rewrite the exercise from the book and post that-- that's to illustrate what to do with the other book, not basically reprinting it on line.

But also, unless you're referencing Syncopation directly-- specific pages, line exercises, or the full page exercises (which are legally compositions)-- there's no reason not to write your own version of Syncopation-style exercises and use them without crediting Reed. Obviously Reed doesn't have a copyright on writing ordinary rhythms for the snare drum over quarter notes on the bass drum. Usually when I do that, it's about something to do with Syncopation, so I'll mention the book anyway, but I don't always credit Reed as having written that example.
 
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