Cinnaminson High School Students Forced To Take Down Lip Sync Video After Sony Music Takes Issue Over Song
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CINNAMINSON, N.J. (CBS) -- A South Jersey high school is being forced to take down a lip sync video on YouTube after Sony Music Entertainment took issue with a song they used.
Students of Sean Wilson's Advanced TV Production class at Cinnaminson High School have been producing videos over the years called "school-wide, one-take lip dubs" which involve them doing a lip sync routine to a song and requires coordination with the entire school. The videos have gotten national attention after Taylor Swift retweeted the "Shake It Off" video Wilson's students posted in 2015.
Wilson, an English and television production teacher, tells CBS Philly that the senior students decided to do another one of these videos, but to a medley of classic 1980s songs.
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"We spent months picking songs, checking to see if they were usable against YouTube's music policy search engine. They all were and still are listed as being OK for use, as long as we weren't trying to profit off of them, which, as a school of course we were not – our YouTube channel is not monetized," Wilson told CBS Philly. "We designed dance routines, got costumes, practiced the choreography, planned special effects."
However, one of the songs they chose, Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go," got flagged by Sony Music Entertainment. Wilson says Sony took issue with them using 30 seconds of the song. He filed an appeal in which he argued fair use, but the appeal was denied.
"We are not 100 percent sure why they have a problem with us using 30 seconds of the Wham song. The song is listed as being available to use on YouTube's music policy page and, as an educational institution, we really should be granted fair use, as the song is being used for non-commercial, educational purposes and is not infringing on their ability to profit off of the song," said Wilson. "Their position just seems like such an out-of-touch way of handling the way people produce and consume media today. The other artists whose songs we used allow it because we are not a monetized channel and they reserve the right to stick ads before our video, which we have no problem with. We don't understand why they have to be the only ones with an issue."
Wilson said the students who made the video were "devastated" that it needs to be taken down.
"They spent two-and-a-half months on this and to have it pulled away from them so quickly like that felt like real defeat over such a trivial reason. All they want is for people to be able to see their hard work," he said.
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Wilson added that no one from Sony has reached out to him and that he has only received takedown messages through YouTube.
"We tried appealing twice and they denied it both times and are threatening to take the video down now and cite us as copyright violators unless we retract our appeal. We have been trying to get the word out or find someone who knows someone who might be able to help, but to no avail so far. We feel like if we actually could speak with someone at Sony, or whoever it is that has the problem with us using the song, that we could convince them that our intentions were innocent and that this whole thing is maybe just a big misunderstanding," said Wilson.
The students filmed the video at the high school on June 1.
CBS Philly has reached out to Sony Music for comment.
