Monday, August 13, 2007

Article by Shelly Palmer: 'Suing YouTube is Not the Answer'

Interesting article by Shelly Palmer, President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and publisher of Media 3.0, gives you a great primer on the complex world of music rights, and perhaps an insight into why 'big music' is being left in the dust:

Lawsuit: Music Publishers v. YouTube Doesn’t Solve the Problem

By Shelly Palmer | August 11, 2007

The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has joined an existing lawsuit accusing YouTube of copyright infringement. Since their purchase of YouTube, it has been open season on Google. Rights-holders know that Google is truly made-of-money and aggrieved content owners now have a target with very deep pockets to sue.

Lawsuits will not solve the problem, which is: there is no easy way to identify who owns which rights in and to most pieces of music and there is no easy way to get a quote and pay them.

If you don’t believe me, pick up the phone and call a recorded music company, publisher, performing rights society or someone else you think might administrate the rights you seek and tell the person who answers the phone you want to purchase public performance rights for a particular song. Good luck. Maybe, if you retain a special music clearance firm or seasoned entertainment attorney, you can complete the process of obtaining the rights to use a particular song in sync with a video you want to put online. But, even if you are successful, the process can take days or weeks and cost thousands in attorney’s fees (over and above the negotiated cost of the rights you seek).

While we are on the topic, what rights should you be seeking in the first place? Let’s review: .......

Complete article




Keywords: digital copyright online law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs

3 comments:

Jadeic said...

Excellent, if brief, article that shows just what a shambolic mess the 'music industry' has created and over which it has increasingly less meaningful control.

raybeckerman said...

Yes, it really shows how archaic they are, and how doomed their business model is.

Galen said...

This is exactly why companies like Audiosocket are aiding in the battle for content music. They make it so easy and cheap to license independent music for your videos , it's pretty much the itunes of music licensing. Great article and post Ray!