YouTube and Copyright
I got an email today from YouTube stating one of my recent videos was rejected due to copyright infringement. I had posted a video last week of Widespread Panic covering Van Morrison’s “And It Stoned Me”. I really like this song by Van Morrison, and also dig Widespread’s cover of it, which I saw live at Uptown Theater here in KC.
Anyway, it was one the second video I had posted of some of video I have taken at several concerts I have been to so far, but the first copyright notice I have gotten. In all fairness, YouTube does state pretty clearly that any footage of concerts without the express permission of the copyright owners is prohibited. So, nothing I can really do.
The internet has become so congested with piracy this, piracy that, lawsuit here, lawsuit there. Recently, VIACOM sued Google (YouTube’s parent company) for a billion dollars, and a judge ordered Google to hand over every user’s information, how many times they watched any video, what they posted, etc. This is coming from a judge that probably knows very little about the internet. However, it is setting a pretty bad precedence on a user’s privacy. I have a feeling this type of thing is going to continue until the Recording and Movie industry can figure out a way to capitalize on the internet as an advertising and distribution medium. The only thing they’ve figured out so far is how to sue people. Seems to me like they’re trying to paddle upstream here.
For now, I’ll abide by the terms YouTube has set forth. Maybe someday we can spread the word of artists so that new fans can go out and see live shows, instead of pirating their mp3s off the internet and never knowing how great live shows are.
