EDIT: Alright, I had a really long-winded description here, but it all disappeared when I clicked post. I'll try to shorten it a bit.

I just received an e-mail from YouTube's Content Identification Team saying that a copyright owner has claimed they own content in one of my videos. The video in question is a clip from my high school's video yearbook which I helped produce as a senior back in 2003. Yeah, I'm a youngin' ...I know. Here's the video: youtube.com/watch?v=OZs2ixENTp0

The content in question is a track by the band Fall Out Boy (you may have heard of them) called Grenade Jumper. It came off their then-new CD "Take This To Your Grave." At the time, Fall Out Boy was unsigned and they were considered by us to be a pretty darn good sounding local band as Wilmette is on a short skip and a jump from my hometown in central Illinois.

We found their track on a little site called MP3.com (you may have heard of that too) and emailed the band directly asking if we could use a few of their tracks in our yearbook. They kindly replied saying they'd just want credit for whatever we used. We easily obliged and cited them in our credits at the end of the yearbook.

Since then, Fall Out Boy got pretty popular. Actually, they signed to Fueled By Ramen the same year, and reached commercial success with an album the summer after we graduated, which was pretty cool.

The problem is that we received permission to the band before they were signed by a major label. We have an e-mail to prove that it was okay at the time, but now they're on Island Records, which is a part of the Island Def Jam Music Group, whose parent company is Universal Music Group--big stuff.

I'm wondering if I can dispute this legitimately or if it will be laughed off by Universal. What do you guys think?

It's really not going to be worth much for them to pursue. I'd respond noting that you have written permission from the band to use the material PRIOR to them being signed.

If the label notes that this is not good enough (meaning they have purchased all rights to the bands materials even prior to signing, or they lead you to believe they have, then have an attorney send them a letter with a copy of the written permission (email), and ask them to produce documents which state they own rights to the bands work prior to them being signed. If they can't produce, they're SOL. If they can, you're SOL and you need to comply.

Note, I am not an attorney and do not play one on TV. I did work in the music industry for a while, and I happen to work around a LOT of attorneys for a living. :)

And yea, why are you asking about a youtube violation on Vimeo??

Well, if you don't fight it, you'll have to do a music substitution (which does not nicely fit your edited video, most likely). Or, you'll have to reupload a new video and lose your comments and links and everything.

"why are you asking about a youtube violation on Vimeo?"

Maybe cos they don't have a decent forum to discuss these matters over there..?

I think what'll happen is YouTube'll wait to see if you have a legit claim, and then just pull the video. I think they're informing you first to let you know it's not them but the record companies. I've had several notes from Sony saying I'm in violation and that it seems if I get a lot of hits they'll post some ads up! But I don't mind that.

Is it warner Bros? They're having a dispute with YT at the mo so we can expect a lot of this from them.

According to Amazon.com the copyright to this song lies with Fueled By Ramen.
amazon.com/Grenade-Jumper-Album-Version/dp/B0011Z5I3M/ref=sr_f2_13?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1231808151&sr=102-13

On their website, they do have a contact about 'distribution inquires' at fueledbyramen.com/about/

If some other label bought the rights to all previous work, I would have an argument with them that they can not cancel the contract you have with them without any notice, reason, or pay out etc.

This sounds ridiculous to me. They gave you written permission - end of discussion. It doesn't matter if they signed a deal after the fact, it doesn't nullify your written agreement. And the music company can't nullify that agreement after the fact, unless there's language in the original agreement saying so. I've been dealing with talent release forms for years and if somebody changed their mind after we got their permission, we may oblige just to be nice but there's no way they could ever force us to give back the written permission they've already given.

That said, your agreement was only for the original video yearbook. There's no way they could force you to take the song out of that yearbook video, but depending on the wording of your agreement, it probably does not apply to you now uploading that content for mass distribution across the entire internet. Putting it on the internet is probably not what they agreed to. But for the record, this has absolutely nothing to do with whether they've signed a deal since then because that could never nullify your existing agreement.