Just this past week, YouTube has gone through some heat having to deal with copyright loopholes.
The music industry’s most prominent musicians have commented on YouTube’s copyright limitations. Some have accused this media outlet of profiting off stolen, unpaid content. According to Billboard, over 180 musicians have signed a petition, hoping congress will ratify YouTube’s correlation with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Kings of Leon, Vince Staples, Paul McCartney, and Taylor Swift are among the artists that have signed the petition. However, some artists have had no problem speaking their mind about the subject matter.
Patrick Carney, drummer for The Black Keys commented, “Give me five minutes on YouTube and I probably can find 250 songs that are available which the artist isn’t getting paid for. At least.”
The DMCA was ratified to protect video outlets such as YouTube to from copyright infringement liability as long as they take down notices from rights holders. Since YouTube is such a huge video-sharing website, many uploads that violate this policy often go undetected on their radar.
YouTube has not been quiet about this affair. YouTube responded to the criticism by pointing out to the artists the $3 Billion that is paid out to the artists. Billboard has also said that YouTube is in the process of negotiating new deals with with monopoly recording labels such as Universal Music. Not trying to be snarky, YouTube has also released a statement saying the following:
“The voices of the artists are being heard, and we’re working through details with the labels and independent music organizations who directly manage the deals with us.”
Ironically, artists have commented saying that YouTube has diminished the value of music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. However, this is a bit contradicting since Taylor Swift wrote Apple Music an extensive letter, notifying Apple it was unfair to not compensate artists for their work for three months.
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