Question about derivative work

[thetruthguy]

Just wondering, if I take a song (like Crazy Train) and change it a little so it doesn't sound exactly the same but still has the same feel, would that be in violation of copyright?

Why I ask is because I'd like to cover songs on YouTube just for shits and giggles but don't want to get in trouble for copyright infringement. No lyrics, change the song a bit, play solos over the song, and only placing them on YouTube. I've seen a few artists doing this but wasn't sure if it was still legal or not. Even Dave Mustaine put up some teaching vids where he changed a few chords in Megadeth songs because he didn't own the rights to those songs anymore. So I'm not sure.

But then there's guys like NeoGeoFanatic who just put up the real songs and all kinds of teaching vids where the real songs are played, but I've heard you take risks putting up vids like that because YouTube will delete your entire channel if any major recording companies complain.

I was essentially thinking of posting vids as "In the style of ..." rather than straight up covers.

Thanks!

[RacerX]

Even Dave Mustaine put up some teaching vids where he changed a few chords in Megadeth songs because he didn't own the rights to those songs anymore.

?

What songs would those be?

[Hellbat]

I think teaching songs is considered fair use, but I'm not a US citizen and am easily confused by your copyright laws.

[VitaminG]

I've seen Dave do that for GW columns. Don't know the reasoning behind, if it's some publishing rights issue. When people like Jeff Loomis have had columns, they'd just play the song as they wrote it.

As for you posting covers of other people's tunes, just go for it. YouTube is full of them. I can only foresee an issue if you then posted links for the purchase of your version because then the original artist would deserve to get a cut & you might be circumventing that.

[Grawnday]

As long as you keep your face out of frame.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPXOp2bPhQQ


or hide your identity with a surgical mask, you'll be ok....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb04wApMa_s

[thetruthguy]

Thanks. I'm not sure what the legal issues are, but it's true that all kinds of people put of vids of songs all the time ... though I have read articles where entire channels have been deleted because people were throwing up covers that eventually got too many reports from record corps. Who knows?

[Newc]

Do it as a "this is how you play this section" fragmented video, rather than performing the whole song. Then it would be considered instructional.