That’s right: The copyright holder was claiming ownership of something that wasn’t there. That’s what the Auralnauts discovered earlier this summer when they received word that Warner/Chappell-the global music publishing arm of Warner Music Group-had filed a monetization claim on their “ Star Wars Minus Williams” video through YouTube's Content ID System. But another set of viewers-those with the rights to the movie’s soundtrack-tuned in to these sounds of silence and heard something else: the ka-ching of a cash register. Sign up to get Backchannel's weekly newsletter.įans of the YouTube channel Auralnauts, which posted the doctored Star Wars scene in 2014 as a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the emotional power of Williams’ score, loved it for that weirdness.
Jeremy Hsu is a science and tech journalist based in New York.
