This morning Mashable reported that YouTube has started disabling the audio aspect of videos containing the unauthorized use of copyrighted music. Included in the Mashable article is this example of a video that has had its audio track disabled. I’ve seen other content removed from YouTube in the past for copyright violations. I understand why YouTube has taken this action and I don’t disagree with it at all.

I find this case interesting because the style of video effected is the audio slideshow style, a style of video simlar to those that you can create in Animoto. In the case of videos effected today, the video remains working, but the audio is disabled essentially leaving you with an automated slideshow.

Applications for Education
This case of YouTube disabling audio from video slideshows provides us with a reminder to use Creative Commons licensed music when creating audio slideshows. One way allow your students to creative audio slideshows without worrying about copyright infringement is to use Animoto. Animoto provides a long list of royalty-free music that students can use in their video slideshows.