[442] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] The Record Industry's Suicide by YouTube
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Mon Mar 23 02:41:11 2009
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:16:08 -0700
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The Record Industry's Suicide by YouTube
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000525.html
Greetings. If you've browsed around YouTube videos lately via any of
the available platforms (an easily acquired habit that sometimes
requires intervention to reduce) you may have noticed an increasing
number of oddly silent videos. These are almost universally amateur
shorts of one kind or another. Here's an example -- posted on YouTube
almost three years ago -- found with a "devo are we not men" YouTube
search query: ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_DXa3rFyUU ).
When viewed on the main YouTube site, the reason for the audio's
absence is explained by an ominous warning:
"This video contains an audio track that has not been
authorized by WMG. The audio has been disabled."
WMG. Weapons of Mass Greed? No, but as Bullwinkle the Moose might
say, you're getting close -- Warner Music Group. The masses of
homemade videos with missing soundtracks are the result of an ongoing
dispute -- well explained in this current New York Times article --
between WMG and Google:
( http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/business/media/23warner.html ).
I won't attempt to delve here into the complexities of copyright law
and fair use, but I will make a simple observation. The ability of
record labels (and by extension the motion picture industry) to
prevent what they consider to be the unauthorized use of their works
is rapidly being destroyed by technological change. I discussed the
issue earlier this month in "Copyright: Dead Man Walking"
( http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000515.html ).
To the extent that these media firms will have any significant
economic future, it is likely to largely depend on the good will of
music and movie lovers to pay for what they could otherwise easily
obtain for free through various mechanisms.
If such media giants are seen by consumers as being greedy by
targeting amateur video producers for enforcement actions, the likely
result will be a backlash of bad will -- driving people farther toward
the free distribution channels. This could well be suicidal for these
firms in the long run.
In a battle between Google and the record labels, the latter have a
lot more to lose at this point, for they risk significantly escalating
the existing animosities that many potential customers (for justified
reasons or not) feel toward the labels and their typically
conglomerate parent companies today.
The record labels may feel that they're between a rock and a hard
place. They realize that Google and YouTube are important -- perhaps
critical -- to their futures, but after so many years of being in the
driver's seat when it comes to financial negotiations, they find the
thought of being in a less overwhelmingly dominant role quite galling
to say the least.
We can all understand this. But that understanding doesn't change the
essential facts. The clock is running out rapidly on the traditional
technological duplication controls that have protected the audio and
video media financial ecosystems since their inceptions.
An entirely new gestalt for dealing with such media in the digital age
is necessary, and even the outlines of what this might be are
decidedly fuzzy. But the very last thing that anyone in the record
biz should want to do right now is to alienate ordinary folks who want
to throw a soundtrack on their homemade YouTube videos. Otherwise, it
may ultimately be those labels themselves that end up being silenced
as a result.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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