Family vlogger Jess, or @jesssfamofficial, breaks down how Jane The Virgin used her voice from her natural birthing video without asking for consent in a viral TikTok.
The video, captioned “Story time & proof from when popular TV show Jane the Virgin used MY audio without me knowing,” has over 1.1 million views and 172,000 likes since posting yesterday.
Jane the Virgin is a popular television series centered around a young woman’s miraculous pregnancy in a comedic take on telenovelas.
Jess is a popular online content creator with 1.25 million YouTube subscribers and 1.4 million TikTok followers. She posts videos about her life as a former teen mom and natural deliveries.
In her TikTok video, she points out how Jane The Virgin used her voice from her popular natural birth video by juxtaposing her own video and the birthing scene in Jane The Virgin season one episode 22, which came out May 11, 2015.
Jess notes in the Sept. 29 video, “In the scene that has my voice, Jane is trying to decide if she’s going to have a natural birth or not, and you hear MY voice in the background having a natural birth, and my voice scares Jane into getting the epidural.”
The video Jane The Virgin allegedly used audio from was posted April 5, 2012 on Jess’s YouTube account and has over 4 million views.
“I don’t know if this was ethical or legal, but it just would’ve been nice to get some acknowledgement in the credits,” says Jess.
Most of the over 2,000 comments agreed that the show’s producers should’ve reached out for permission or given her credit.
“Youtubers’ work IS copyrighted, so for those saying they did nothing wrong by using her audio, yes they did,” says @jadaaxlynnn.
“You should be getting paid,” says @thenutterhouse5.
Others thought it was a money or attention grab, and scolded Jess for pointing it out.
“All because you didn’t get credit,” says @alexusolivia999.
“Very legal it’s the internet,” says @kellibrazy.
YouTube copyright is complicated but all original content posted on Youtube belongs to the creator unless the creator gives permission.
The Daily Dot reached out to Jess and Jane The Virgin for comment.