A domestic cat named Phantom has been caught up in a copyright infringement case after its owner posted a video showing the feline purring on YouTube.
The purring video was originally uploaded to the video sharing website in March 2014, but copyright detection software used by the site only issued a warning to the cat’s owner – Digihaven (YouTube name) – many months later.
According to YouTube, a 12-second section of the purring cat, in the hour-long video, infringed on the copyright of a third party’s song, which was later revealed to be a music video belonging to PRS and EMI Music Publishing.
Through a system called Content ID, any video uploaded by a YouTube user is automatically scanned and compared against a database of files submitted by the rights owners of original content.
Copyright owners are alerted, and can decide what steps to take, if a video’s content on YouTube matches a work they own.
However, as the case with Phantom shows, the system used by the site is not sophisticated enough to ensure that copyright infringement is correctly flagged, meaning that completely innocent parties can face unexpected legal action.
EMI lifted its copyright infringement claim after Digihaven filed a dispute.