you must use music in the public domain

VEX Robotics Competition Discussion Online Challenges > Online Challenges Official Q&A
1

Online challenges with video submissions state “Please note: you must use music in the public domain, or YouTube may delete your video.”

Because it says “you must” does this exclude teams from composing their own music which they want to retain copyright to? Are they forced to release their music into the public domain in order to comply with the online challenge requirements? How about legally obtained performance rights for copyrighted material? Some music and sound effects are available royalty free but aren’t actually public domain and wouldn’t be detected by YouTube either.

It seems the note is mostly about YouTube’s copyrighted/monetized material detection potentially removing online challenge content. Maybe this could be worded differently saying teams must use licensed music (public domain or otherwise) so they can chose appropriately without being constrained to just public domain content?

For reference:
Music is considered to be in the public domain if it meets any of the following criteria:
-All rights have expired.
-The authors have explicitly put a work into the public domain.
-There never were copyrights.

Q: Is a team penalized if their music track(s) aren’t strictly public domain? Some challenges have public domain statements in the judging criteria whilst others note it in requirements.

Q: Can a team use legally obtained performance rights to copyrighted music and sound effect content?

Q: Should teams state their music licensing and/or source in credits?

Q: Do the judging group actually verify “public domain music” usage or is the YouTube take-down system doing this accurately enough to be relied upon?

2

Excellent question! Yes, students may use original music that they create. You are correct, we should use language other than “you must.” We will note this and make the change. Please find the answers to your specific questions below:

Q: Is a team penalized if their music track(s) aren’t strictly public domain? Some challenges have public domain statements in the judging criteria whilst others note it in requirements.
Answer: No, they are not penalized. We put that in the copy as a guideline to avoid YouTube taking down any videos. We don’t want a team’s hard work to be flagged by a copyright owner and taken down or muted by YouTube.

Q: Can a team use legally obtained performance rights to copyrighted music and sound effect content?
Answer: Yes. Be sure to properly credit the licensing and source - add this to your credits section in the video and also in the Description or Video Credits section during the YouTube posting process.

Q: Should teams state their music licensing and/or source in credits?
Answer: Yes. It’s good practice to credit external musicians/composers, photographers, artists, writers who contribute content to your video. The more professional an entry looks, the higher it will rank with the judges.

Q: Do the judging group actually verify “public domain music” usage or is the YouTube take-down system doing this accurately enough to be relied upon?
Answer: Depends on the judge. Some may flag it; but the majority relies on the YouTube verification system with copyright owners and content ID.

Hope this helps, and good luck!
Janice