Slashdot Mirror
YouTube To Block Music Videos In the UK
ChunKing writes "YouTube is to block all premium music videos to UK users after failing to reach a new licensing agreement with the Performing Rights Society. For many of us in the UK this is great news. The two main music licensing agencies in the UK — Phonographic Performance Limited and PRS — have a stranglehold on music use in this country and are stifling creativity."
If you actually READ THE ARTICLE and still cast the PRS as the bad guy in this, then you really need to put down the crackpipe.
Let's review the situation here:
1. in its "see no evil" way, youtube hosts tens of thousands of music videos which infringe on the copyright of the artists and creators. in doing so, they restrict the ability for those artists to be compensated for these videos via, for example, MTV licensing agreemnts.
2. culture shifts, spurred on by thousands of slashdot piracy rationalists to where the creators of the material now have to come begging to YouTube for a share of the advertising money. YouTube has done nothing useful other than provide distribution at a profit - at absolute best it is the equivalent of the RIAA middleman who plays the regular boogieman here. The only difference here is that youtube, by playing innocent, isnt normally even required to even give money back to the artists.
3. but, the PRS is big eonugh that they manage to secure SOME money back to the artists. PRS claims that what youtube is offering is insufficient compared to what it could have gotten (presumably) via its legitimate licensing contracts (IE MTV). YouTube tells PRS to suck it because it is entitled to its guaranteed profit for the near zero amount that it actually contributes to the creative process besides turning a blind eye to piracy.
and yet, it's PRS, not the youtube mafia, who are the bad guys. typical slashdot logic.