Whose property is it anyway?: Singer Haroon Shahid and fan face off over fan-made video

Fan videos — we’ve all seen them, liked them and sometimes even shared them but there’s one thing thing you have to remember — always give credits, even if they use your song. Singer Haroon Shahid learned that the hard way.

The actor had tweeted a fan-made edit using his song ‘Mitti’ from telefilm Aik Hai Nigar that he said was forwarded to him via Whatsapp but was called out for not giving due credits to the creator. The fan who created video called him out for “stealing someone’s edit and posting it as your own.”

Fan-based content has been taking over Instagram, largely targeting celebrities for reshare purposes and most stars do give credits. Likewise, this fan hoped to get credits too but instead the ‘Tum Kaho’ crooner responded, “using my song, stealing ARY’s visuals and making an edit is worse! What you on about stinker.”

The video editor’s friends rushed to her defence and called Shahid “disrespectful.”

Diva Magazine posted about the situation on Instagram and Shahid went on to clarify his side of the story in their comment section. “Hello everyone. I’m sure you haven’t seen me being rude to people or anything but in this case, this lady or guy was clearly out of line when he/she pointed out that I shared their edit.

“Firstly, a friend had sent this on WhatsApp and I had no clue who it was by. So since this person pointed out rudely and abruptly on Twitter I had to point it out that USING MY SONG without my permission in this case makes you worse,” he said.

Now of course this does not mean you should or can use anyone’s content without crediting them, be it music or a clip because at the end of the day it is called creative theft and it is unacceptable. But there was no harm in Shahid appreciating the fan edit. Those take work too!

Shahid left his fans pretty upset about his behaviour. Many called him out and asked him to credit the creator of the clip to which the star once again responded by calling the commenters “ignorant” and said, “The song belongs to me, I have signed contract that makes it mine.”

Some fans didn’t budge and requested Shahid to be polite while others attacked him for his attitude.

“Sorry I forgot you function on being a troll and no it’s not okay to accuse people of stealing,” Shahid retorted. Not everyone engaging in online debate is a troll and calling them one didn’t win Shahid any favours.

Many have been on the fence about Shahid’s rejoinders and therefore reminded him that it’s okay to acknowledge fan edits as does everyone else in the industry, but it’s still a big no for the artist.

If a musician doesn’t want or like their music being used for fan edits, fans will have to respect that but it will be rather difficult for a celebrity to enforce this rule. Celebrities also need to realise that fans are the backbone of their industry and without fans, they wouldn’t be much.

Credit must be given where it is due but that goes for everyone. There was no harm in Shahid crediting the video editor or saying he didn’t know who had created the edit in the first tweet he posted. Most people who make these videos are young fans and for them, a stamp of approval from a celebrity would be great to have.

Shahid’s approach might not be the best way to win fans’ hearts or even get views and he’s ignoring something big — fan edits on Instagram or TikTok help promote songs and shows, sometimes far better than conventional ads. He might want to keep that in mind next time he decides to engage in a feud with fans.