A word on my Vocaloid cover usage permission policy

Since a lot of people have been bothering me about it lately.
(Not that most offenders will see this since they’re all on YT oops.)

Actually it’s several words and not just one but hey.

I provide the mp3 download link to most of my covers, and above each link I state that you should ask for permission before using it for any purpose other than simple listening.

There are three reasons for this.

1. So I can deny permission for people who want to use the cover for a purpose I don’t approve of. I don’t really want to pull this one often, but it comes up a lot because the two big things I don’t like, MMD and choruses, are pretty much exclusively the things people ask to use it in. I deny permission for MMD videos and chorus mash-ups because I simply don’t like videos like that. Sorry if that’s annoying, but that’s just what I think and as the creator of the cover I feel I should have some say in how it’s used.
2. So I can ensure, if permission is given, that the person in question credits me as the creator of the cover. I’m very adamant on crediting, I absolutely hate seeing unsourced art, and the prevalent mindsent in the Vocaloid community where people list the Vocaloid as the artist instead of the producer irks me to no end.
3. Because I am a fickle butt and hate all the content I produce and giving myself authority over its usage lets me call anybody out on using it so they can remove it because I hate all my covers.

Now, there have of course been cases where people have used my content without permission anyway. In those cases I’ve either asked for deletion or at least to give credit. Call me hypocritical since I am stingy about permission in the first place, but once someone has actually done some content with my work (that I don’t disapprove of too badly) I feel bad to make them undo their hard work, and usually drop the issue if they agree to at least credit me.

I’ve gotten a lot of backlash for these decisions. A lot of criticism about me simply denying people with a “no,” a lot of criticism asking what the point of permission asking is if I’m just gonna deny everything,  a lot of criticism stating I should just be happy that people want to use my work, and lastly that I shouldn’t have any authority over the usage of my stuff since they’re all covers of other people’s music anyway.

As for the first point, yes. I can be frank. Often, the wording of my reply depends on the wording of the question. If the person asking for permission is polite, I will naturally answer politely as well, and apologize if I deny the permission. If I feel someone’s way of asking is rude, I will answer frankly. Which is often just a simple “no.” Feel free to hate me forever.

As for the second and third point, see the list above.

As for the fourth point.
I admit, I don’t know the first thing about copyright laws, and if someone were to use my covers in a situation that would require the intervention of those, I would have no idea what to do. Probably, I would do nothing.
I simply believe asking for permission and respecting that person’s wishes is common courtesy. You can argue that my covers have all been done without permission, but for every cover I’ve made the original creator has distributed the karaoke track and not made any restrictions on covering.

If you find a case where I’ve covered a song against the original creator’s wishes, or if you yourself are the original creator and don’t like it, I will not hesitate to delete any cover I’ve made and write a public apology.