YouTube & Copyright Infringement
In recent years, hundreds of internet users have been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America, also known as the RIAA. The charges: copyright infringement. With broad accessibility of high speed internet, it has become more and more convenient for people to just download their favorite songs, music video or movies or simply create their own internet radio playlists. Over the years, this trend has become such a common practice that the filmmaking and music industries eventually noticed drastic decline in their sales. This observation compelled the RIAA to sue Internet users who had been identified downloading copyrighted materials.
RIAA Lawsuits
When the counter measures against these downloaders did not deliver the desired results, the RIAA adjusted their tactics a bit. Instead of going after the downloaders, the RIA is now after individuals that upload more than a thousand files in a certain timeframe. Internet Service Providers have been put on notice that they need to regulate their customers; it almost seems that the RIAA is trying to place the burden of ensuring the copyright law is respected by Internet users on the backs of the user’s respective ISPs. In a way it makes sense: you upload illegal files, you lose your Internet connection, you suddenly have no method of sharing files for illegal distribution.
YouTube Copyright problems
The same ideas apply to YouTube, the third most popular website on the Internet (as per Alexa ranking). YouTube dealt with a number of controversies even before it became the number one video sharing site. First, its name was controversial: another website that sounded like YouTube filed a lawsuit when their site became overloaded with traffic from users searching for YouTube. In the following years, several companies sued them for allegedly failing to encourage adiquate copyright protections by permitting its users share copyrighted materials, accusations for which YouTube is most likely liable. What’s interesting about this is that anybody with an internet connection can enjoy free online music without paying subscription or other fees.
YouTube’s View
YouTube’s primary defense is its terms of service, which request users not to share any materials that is held by someone else without the consent of the latter. Because YouTube doesn’t have the regulation and the ability to filter the videos uploaded by its users, numerous unauthorized clips of copyrighted materials are being uploaded every day.
YouTube states on its web page that the burden of ensuring copyright protection is left up to copyright holders. There is a (DMCA) form and procedures on the same page that allow copyright holders to notify YouTube of copyright infringement.
YouTube’s latest strategy to enforcing copyright protection is aimedat video clips that contain copyrighted audio as a soundtrack. They have come up with a sound-scanning system that searches soundtracks for copyrighted music during processing. Then, based on which recording company holds the copyright, YouTube either blocks the sound from playing or plays ads to enable YouTube to pay royalty fees to the copyright holder.
The verdict: songs and other copyrighted material on YouTube is not going to disappear; YouTube has shown aptitude for solving any issues that pop up before, and there’s little question that they’ll find a way to work with recording companies and other copyright holders to be able to continue displaying the content that everybody wants to see.
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