False Claims (Part Two)

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but this whole false copyright claim being made against a home video I uploaded to You Tube the other week is taking some bizarre turns.  As you might recall from last week's post on the subject, some outfit called The Orchard, who claim to manage digital rights for various artists and who are notorious for trying to claim rights to public domain music, are claiming that the public domain music, (composed, in reality, by Frank Nora), is actually a tune by one of their artists.  I outlined last week how my investigations had turned up that the alleged artist in question 'Micheal White' (their spelling), didn't seem to exist anywhere other than on their site, (the similarly named jazz musician Michael White isn't one of their artists),  where they had one unreleased album listed.  An album supposedly issued by a label with no web presence.  Yesterday, I decided to see if there was any progress in the dispute I've raised with YouTube, I was astounded to fund that The Orchard are now no longer claiming that I've used a track by the mysterious 'Micheal White'.  Oh no, they are now claiming that the artist concerned is the 'Jimmy Luke Band'!

To be clear, they haven't dropped the original false claim.  They've simply changed the name of the artist!  Needless to say, the 'Jimmy Luke Band' are as elusive as 'Micheal White' - I've found a country and western singer called Jimmy Luke, whose music sounds nothing like Frank Nora's track, which is the subject of this dispute.  As before, the 'Jimmy Luke Band' has a listing on The Orchard's site, this time with three albums - none of which are yet released!  Also, they are apparently to be released by a label with no web presence that I can find.  Sound familiar?  The audacity of these shysters is breath taking.  Having caught them out in their first fraudulent claim, (that's right guys, I'm accusing you of fraud), their response is to simply invent another fake artist to lay claim to what is indisputably an original piece of public domain music.  Worse still, is the fact that You Tub is allowing them to do this!  Surely they can't be allowed to alter the entire basis of their claim without notice or without dropping the original claim and starting afresh?  'Don't Be evil' You Tube's owners, Google, used to be fond of saying.  Clearly, times have changed, as these days they seem quite happy to facilitate evil on an industrial scale!