2 posts tagged “copyright”
YouTube no friend to copyright violators
Yup, if you get sued because of material that infringes on copyright, YouTube (well now,it's part of Google so I guess them too) won't defend you at all. Now, granted that this is in their terms of service, user agreement, blah blah it seems somewhat ridiculous that a company that was just purchased in the billions is not going to defend those that made it worth that much.
Most people go on YouTube to watch work that would be deemed as infringement. That was the whole appeal of the site. You don't have to pay for a music video, you don't have to wait until SNL repeats the one skit years later on E!, and you don't have to live in a weird neighborhood where leprechaun sitings are the norm.
It's understandable that they can't take on such a risk but at the same time, if they get rid of all the copyrighted material, what will be left?? I'm definitely not going to pay a dollar everytime I want to see something which is probably what it would come down to. Though I might just for that leprechaun news story. But that's it.
YouTube cuts three content deals
Instead of fighting against the growing cultural phenomenon known as YouTube, three more record labels, following Warner's lead, have moved toward promotion of their artists via hosting of copyrighted materials such as music videos on the popular video sharing site.
Today, Universal Music Group, Song BMG Entertainment, and CBS announced that artists' music and videos will be included in their original form on YouTube. Each has negotiated a different contract with different means of dealing with compensation. Sony utilizing streaming ad revenue while CBS has chosen to upload its own media content and either remove or put streaming ads next to unauthorized material that is up on the site now.
The most disturbing contract seems to be Universal's. It has been made clear yet if there will be a charge to see or listen to content from those artists. However, if that is the case, it will certainly be detrimental to Universal. If I can see other artists' videos for free with an ad, I'll always do that instead of dealing with the hassle of typing in my credit card number.
In fact, if they choose that path, I wouldn't be surprised if many of their artists will be very upset about it. With MTV playing maybe 5 videos a day, YouTube and other online video sharing websites have become the new means of finding out about new artists and their visual interpretations of their music.
In other news, Google has bought YouTube for the "low price" of 1.65 billion in Google stock. So it seems, the Google monster grows.
