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YouTube Is Guilty Of Criminal Racketeering, Grammy Winner Says (torrentfreak.com)

An anonymous reader cites a TorrentFreak report (edited and condensed): YouTube is guilty of criminal racketeering. That's the headline-grabbing claim of Grammy award winning musician Maria Schneider, who claims that the Google-owned site is abusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to siphon money away from musicians into its own pockets. Over the years, Google has transformed into the new bad guy and the pressure is mounting in a way never witnessed before. The U.S. Copyright Office's request for comments into the efficacy of the DMCA's safe harbor provisions has resulted in a wave of condemnation for both Google search and the company's YouTube platform, with everyone from the major record labels to the MPAA and back again attacking the technology giant. Grammy award-winning musician Maria Schneider really ups the ante by stating that YouTube is guilty of the same criminal acts that Megaupload is currently accused of. "YouTube is guilty of criminal racketeering," Schneider wrote in an open letter to the platform. "YouTube has thoroughly twisted, contorted, and abused the original meaning of the outdated DMCA 'safe harbor' to create a massive income redistribution scheme, where income is continually transferred from the pockets of musicians and creators of all types, and siphoned directly into their own pockets."Digital Music News has more information.

163 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why does this matter? by FilmedInNoir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well you see... I have no idea who Maria Schneider is other than she doesn't know what racketeering means.
    Did Youtube demand money from her in exchange for fire, theft, and kneecap insurance?

    --
    Sig. Sig. Sputnik
  2. She should ask Google to forget her by future+assassin · · Score: 1, Interesting

    after all her music should speak for itself and being listed on search results and YT should not matter.

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
    1. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by lgw · · Score: 4, Informative

      You've mis-understood her complaint. She has a legitimate gripe here: either the DMCA is irredeemably broken, or YouTube's implementation of it is. Their system is:
      1. Make baseless DMCA complaint about someone
      2. Get all their ad revenue until they successfully fight the complaint - several days at least for high-profile YouTubers, perhaps forever for normal people
      3. Keep all that revenue after the complaint is found to be baseless
      4. Profit!

      There are dozens of videos from movie and game reviewers about this, who are constantly barraged by baseless takedown notices.

      Here's a good start to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      This search gives many, many viewpoints (from dozens, perhaps hundreds now, of YTers affected by this mess): https://www.youtube.com/result...

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    2. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The funniest part is, if Google actually deleted all of the "infringing" content, Maria Schneider and the RIAA Mafia wouldn't be very happy about it.

      Time for a history lesson:

      In 2013, a number of German publishers successfully lobbied for the passage of a very restrictive copyright law, intended to limit the amount of publisher content that could be shown by third parties (e.g., search engines), so that publishers could collect licensing fees from Google and others.

      After the passage of the law, Google decided to avoid potential liability by removing publisher content snippets from search results, in compliance with the law. As a result, German publishers said they lost significant traffic and asked for the return of their “snippets” without a demand for licensing fees.

    3. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, the money goes to the person making the claim.

    4. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Link? After RTFA, it seems she does not give a shit about people suffering that situation, and her proposals would make it worse (try contesting a DMCA claim when you have no idea who made the claim in the first place; have fun arguing your video is fair use when you can't even upload it thanks to fingerprinting; and do I really need to comment on how much of a cluserfuck take-down-and-stay-down would be?)

      Not-actually-an-Edit: Reading part of the actual letter, you are full of shit. She explicitly complains about Youtube offering financial support to people who wish to contest false DMCA requests. The problem you bring up is a real problem, but this leech doesn't give a fig about it or the people it affects; this is just the childish footstamping of someone who doesn't understand how things work, and feels that somewhere, somehow, they're losing out on a buck.

    5. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I agree that youtube has a serious DMCA / fair use problem, but do you really think the nostalgia critic is the best person to speak against this. His MO is to basically talk over other peoples content, it's the same deal to an even great extent with LPers.

      I've had automated copyright notices for background noise because some algorithm though it sounded like a samba. This robo-filing along with a "we'll get back to you when we feel like it, and probably affirm the claim anyway because actually checking things is hard - see you in court if you don't like it pleb" attitude is a far greater abuse of content ID than youtube's reluctance to arbitrate on what is or isn't fair use.

    6. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Which is why the complaint seems almost stockholms like.

      This woman is complaining her pals, the recording industry, are sending automated takedowns of videos-- some of which are clearly hers that she put up legitimately. The system determines that she does not have copyright authority, per the takedown notice.

      The recording industry redirects the ad revenue into their own pockets while she fights it off....

      and she blames Google??

    7. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by markzip · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So, let's keep the Safe Harbor and add severe penalties for baseless claims. Perhaps something combining monetary damages and a time-out period during which that entity cannot make further claims.

    8. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by BBird · · Score: 1

      if you kill your channel, you kill your sales...

      these people do not get it?

    9. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by Chalnoth · · Score: 1

      I don't understand how a DMCA takedown complaint can result in royalties going to somebody else as the takedown complaint results in removal of the video.

    10. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      There are dozens of videos from movie and game reviewers about this, who are constantly barraged by baseless takedown notices.

      Exactly. Googling on this topic shows quite the opposite of what most people are taking away from TFA. It's not that valid copyright holders can't get takedowns, it's that valid copyright holders are having their videos taken offline because of invalid DMCA takedowns. In other words, Youtube is acting on the (supposed) copyright holder's behalf too aggressively.

      You don't need a lawyer to get a DMCA takedown. It's quite easy and requires no proof / evidence.

      3. Keep all that revenue after the complaint is found to be baseless

      I tried hard to back this up but AFAICT this isn't true. It does temporarily cutoff the revenue stream (which is very bad, especially for smaller creators) but they get the revenue eventually.

    11. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      Upon subsequent reflection and investigation, her complaint looks like this:

      1) She makes original content. She wants to be reimbursed and or recieve remuneration for distribution of that content. Fine there, no problem.

      2) She complains that the DMCA policy with content ID requires her to give Google/youtube a permissive license to redistribute her work, and considers this racketeering.

      Red flag there.

      Seriously, to legally let people see her content on youtube that she has uploaded, youtube needs a permissive license to do that distribution. It is a legal requirement of the law. All uploaders uploading content to Youtube have to agree to this, otherwise youtube cannot display the content.

      In the unlikely case that she does not upload anything to youtube itself, but would still like to have any content that is incorrectly uploaded by fans automatically blocked or monetized for her, Youtube still needs a legally extended copy of her work, and rights to produce derivations thereof, in order to legally generate the fingerprint that contentID uses to identify such uploads, and if she chooses to monetize, youtube needs a license to redistribute that content to legally send her money.

      She seems to think ContentID is magic unicorn poop, and does not need her blessing to be legally used, because it needs her content to operate.

      Without the license and authentic samples she needs to provide, youtube has no good means of determining if a specific video is a violation or not. It is not magic, nor are they clairvoyant-- and fraudulent DMCA takedown notices are a very real thing, so even being hyper vigillant and having an IP lawyer on retainer to do nothing but browse youtube for violations to send takedowns over is not going to completely remove the problem.

      She seems to feel that if youtube did not exist, that people would suddenly stop wanting to share her music/videos. This is demonstrably false, and people did this very thing with radio recordings on mix tapes in the 70s and 80s all the time, long before youtube was even remotely a possible thing.

      Rather, she needs to be more pragmatic, and understand that imitation is flattery. That users sharing her videos gives her more exposure, and makes her a more popular artist. That she can monetize this behavior of her fans, and get paid a little every time somebody sees one of those fan uploaded copies, by giving youtube a distribution license, and choosing to monetize with adverts.

      She doesnt seem to grok that she can either profit from the situation, or be in petulant denial about the real world as regards "her precious", make nothing, and be relegated to obscurity because nobody knows her or her work.

      If I were her, I would be more than happy to give youtube a limited redistribution right, and avoid having my fans be criminalized for uploading their copies of my videos because they love them. I would eagerly give Youtube what they need to legally identify, stream, and insert advertisement remuneration streams in so they could cut me a check. The novelty! being PAID for exposure, instead of paying for it!

      Instead, it is the popular battle cry of the *AAs that Youtube represents a rival distribution system (because it is!), and that it must therefor be destroyed, because competition reduces profitability. Unlike the *AAs, youtube tells you upfront how much (in a rate) they reimburse per advert view, and they reliably cut you a check without all the hollywood accounting to prove that you actually owe them money instead. She seems to have cognitive dissonance over this-- she loves being an independent artist, free of the shackles of the *AAs and their abusive policies toward musicians and artists-- but fails to comprehend how Youtube enables that position on the internet by enabling her fans to promote her for free.... by uploading her videos.

      If I were a modern musician, I would do the following:

      At the bumper page of any of my videos, I would have a short license along these lines:

      This vi

    12. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by nanoflower · · Score: 1

      That doesn't happen now. Youtube changed the policy so that when a complaint is lodged the money goes into a separate bucket and sits there until the complaint is resolved. Once resolved the money goes to whomever wins the complaint so there is no lost revenue.

      The only time this doesn't apply is when more than two people/companies are involved. As Jim Sterling found out if you have multiple companies making copyright complaints then no one gets any money as Youtube bows out of the advertising. Guess they don't want to get involved in lawsuits between multiple corporations so they decided if multiple people make a complaint against a video then no one gets any money (not even Youtube.)

    13. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

      Old guard artists and their labels should get exactly what they're asking for. None of their content whatsoever available for discover/consumption on the Internet. Let them rely upon "word of mouth", and those old fashioned AM/FM radio stations--that don't pay the artist to play their music. Enough is enough. If these people want to sh*t in their own dog food let them. Maybe those buildings that used to contain racks upon racks of plastic and vinyl and little boxes with headphones attached for previewing the contents of a small selection of the popular pieces of plastic will make a comeback.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    14. Re:She should ask Google to forget her by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      2) She complains that the DMCA policy with content ID requires her to give Google/youtube a permissive license to redistribute her work, and considers this racketeering.

      I think she's really just referring to videos that others had uploaded, but Youtube is not requiring her to sign up for ContentID in order for her to file a DMCA takedown. The rules of the DMCA apply whether or not you choose to participate in ContentID.

      ContentID does NOT give Youtube a license to redistribute unless she signs up for that. Yes, when she registers a song with ContentID, one of the options is to allow others to distribute the song with revenue going to her. But that's just one of the options -- another option is to have the audio be muted, or outright block that uploaded video entirely. I feel like she's just not aware of, or is outright ignoring those other options.

  3. Re:Why does this matter? by drakaan · · Score: 1

    Apparently she's a shill for the RIAA (or so I would assume, as I have not yet RTFA). I'm guessing it doesn't affect you. I'm guessing it may not, in fact, affect Maria Schneider, depending on what her specific accusation is.

    --
    "Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
  4. Isn't she.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Isn't she the acterr who took it up the pooper from Marlon Brando?

  5. It's broken by OrangeTide · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Copyright law is broken and doesn't work correctly anymore.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    1. Re:It's broken by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      Is the government getting the money instead of her a real problem for the rest of us?

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  6. Megaupload... by HeadSoft · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One could say that Megaupload is doing far less that could be considered illegal. I would definitely trust them more.

  7. Racketeering? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Grammy award-winning musician Maria Schneider really ups the ante by stating that YouTube is guilty of the same criminal acts that Megaupload is currently accused of. "YouTube is guilty of criminal racketeering," Schneider wrote in an open letter to the platform. "YouTube has thoroughly twisted, contorted, and abused the original meaning of the outdated DMCA 'safe harbor' to create a massive income redistribution scheme, where income is continually transferred from the pockets of musicians and creators of all types, and siphoned directly into their own pockets."

    Pardon me for not shedding any tears, as the RIAA/MPAA members have upped the ante by thoroughly twisting, contorting, and abusing the original meaning of the Copyright Clause of the Constitution, turning into *real* theft from society.

    1. Re: Racketeering? Really? by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

      Pardon me for not shedding any tears, as the RIAA/MPAA members have upped the ante by thoroughly twisting, contorting, and abusing the original meaning of the Copyright Clause of the Constitution

      Pardon me for not shedding any tears, as the congress members have upped the ante by thoroughly twisting, contorting, and abusing the original meaning of the Copyright Clause of the Constitution

      FTFY

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  8. I informed you thusly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This was well known before Google bought Youtube. Back then people wondered what the purpose of buying that site full of copyright violations, and that maybe Google thought they could get away with it due to being everybody's darling and sheer size. As it turned out, that's exactly how they did it: They got a lot of leeway at first, and used the time to clean up Youtube well enough to stay within the limits of the law. All this time, Google used its size to make the deals that made Youtube legal. Well played, Google. Now it's too late, Mrs. Grammy-winner.

    1. Re:I informed you thusly by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Google hopes the big-name content holders will accept ad revenue instead of out-right take-downs, which tick off small Youtube publishers and viewers, and risk Google being sued for censorship. However, that ad revenue is tiny compared to the old-fashioned way of selling entertainment.

      But that's life in the Internet age: viewers have too many options to be forced to stare at boring, cheesy, blowhard ads for too long. Choice has watered-down profits, and many attention seekers publish entertainment for almost free. The big-name providers have to now compete with cute kittens. Ads have got to be short or unintrusive. The captive audience of the 1970's TV living room is gone, as is paying $5 for a song, but the old-school entertainment companies refuse to accept change, and try to force the old ways back.

  9. Abusing the DMCA huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What about these organizations abusing the DMCA by issuing false requests for legitimate content?

  10. Re:Why does this matter? by Scarred+Intellect · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did Youtube demand money from her in exchange for fire, theft, and kneecap insurance?

    I hope so.

  11. YouTube as a Service by MagnumChaos · · Score: 2

    I guess she doesn't understand much about how YouTube works, and is claiming that they are just redistributing money. Not true, actually. In order to operate this FREE SERVICE that they are using, and get PAID THROUGH, they advertise. After they collect that revenue, they appropriate the funds according to percentages and costs of the ads. Sounds to me like she doesn't understand what operating costs are, either. And, they are a business, so they are out to make money, too.

    1. Re:YouTube as a Service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maria Schneider's complaint boils down to this: Google/YouTube makes a lot of money. If they didn't exist, all that money would go to musicians, therefore, Google/YouTube should be required to hand over all their money to the musicians.

      Ignoring the basic fact that she is wrong and her complaint is absurd, she has somehow managed to not notice that nobody has screwed and cheated musicians more than the record companies. The actual losses suffered by musicians as a result of YouTube or any other "piracy" are microscopic compared to the real money that they have lost at the hands of the record companies.

    2. Re:YouTube as a Service by ausekilis · · Score: 1

      Sounds to me like she doesn't understand what operating costs are, either. And, they are a business, so they are out to make money, too.

      By this logic we can say that I am allowed to use any media you produce and redistribute it without my needing to compensate you in any way.

      The problem is that there are hundreds/thousands of people that upload assorted performances/concerts/albums/music videos with no real attribution to the source. Go ahead, look up the next song you hear on the radio on YouTube, look at the publisher to random uploader ratio. Look at the number of views for different videos and guess where the ad revenue is generated... then guess where that same revenue goes.

      Sure DMCA is ham-handed in the takedown notices... but for each one takedown, some larger number come up. I'd argue the real problem is that the distributors need to update their business model. Make their stuff accessible, high quality, and inexpensive. They can make money on quantity, instead of complaining about "lost sales, piracy, nobody wants to pay $20 for a CD". How much does the Apple Music store make these days? How many sales in Amazon MP3's?

    3. Re:YouTube as a Service by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Slashdotters are geniuses </sarcasm> at coming up with dozens of good-sounding (to them, only) arguments that have nothing to do with the issue at stake, which is: does Google have the right to make hundreds of millions of ad money revenue from the works of musicians without securing permission?

      Copyright law is clear: If Google uploads the copyrighted video, it's on the hook for penalties. If a user uploads a copyrighted video to a generic video service, then the user is on the hook. If Google refuses to take down the video or drags its feet when they are notified about an infringing video, then they are liable. They are not advertising that they're a service to get copyrighted videos.

  12. Megaupload comparison by PRMan · · Score: 1

    YouTube is guilty of the same "criminal" acts that Megaupload is currently accused of

    Well, she managed to get one thing right.

    --
    Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    1. Re:Megaupload comparison by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      YouTube is guilty of the same "criminal" acts that Megaupload is currently accused of

      Well, she managed to get one thing right.

      I don't think it's that great a comparison, Google has a lot more money to defend itself and is US-based (so it has a lot of US politicians ready to fight for it), and it's been good about getting politicians on its side (unlike Microsoft in the 90s).

  13. Re:Why does this matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why do things that matter have to affect you directly? That's another question to ask yourself. There are many things that are bad that don't affect you directly. The wildfire in Ft. McMurray for example, it doesn't affect you, yet it is vitally important to many people who's home are being destroyed and who's livelyhoods are being threatened. She feels it is important to her, and her industry. which actually includes many people besides just the artists, but the producers, the commercial jingle writers, anyone who has ever held a copyright.

    Why is this important to anyone? Well, I actually don't think the letter has much merit, and that is important to me. YouTube has proven that they comply with takedown orders, they cannot control everything that is put up there, with ~300 Hours of content uploaded every minute, (2014 stats) that would require, let's do the math, 300 hrs x 60 x 24 = 432000 hrs uploaded per day, that would require 54000 8 hour shifts to go through all the content. 54000+ employees to monitor every video uploaded for copyright infringing content. Yeah, I don't think that's feasible. The use of digital fingerprinting leaves it open to false positives, and fair use violations, (It would cause an official release of Ice Ice baby to go down because it might match just enough to Queen's Under Pressure). How they're taking money from artists, is questionable, I suppose having to have a lawyer send the takedown notice. But usually the label does that, which they might charge back to the artist but that's not youtube's fault or responsibility, if anything that's racketeering on behalf of the labels not Youtube.

  14. Recording Labels by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hate break it to you miss, but it's the label under which you signed that's siphoning money away from you. If it wasn't for YouTube and other streaming services, your audience would be substantially smaller.

    --
    Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    1. Re:Recording Labels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The actual open letter is vitriolic but is hardly crazy. This looks like an individual artist outside the mainstream with a possibly legitimate and sensationalized complaint. "The Internet has brought the world together in many wonderful ways. I appreciate that as much as anyone, having been the first Internet-only, fan-funded 'GRAMMY-winner."

      The complaint is Google would not let her protect her music with the ContentID, allows anyone to upload illegal content, monetizes it through ads, and eventually takes it down after the individual artist files DMCA complaints.

      She simply wants Google to let small artists not connected with massive conglomerates to be able to protect their music with ContentID or a similar digital fingerprinting program.

    2. Re:Recording Labels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Maria Schneider does not belong to a label. She broke with her label well over a decade ago for the reasons you allude to, and she now pays for her own CDs through ArtistShare, a crowd funding site mainly for musicians. www.mariaschneider.com You are right that labels siphon money and abuse musicians, and especially now with the internet by basically giving their artists music away practically for free in exchange for shares in Spotify and the like.

      And... since I'm not registered on this board or something, I guess I'm down as "Anonymous Coward". OK well, - I'm Kate, Maria Schneider's sister. There! Not anonymous!

    3. Re:Recording Labels by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

      Looks like she's using YouTube for profit as well...

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    4. Re:Recording Labels by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 2

      You mean giving it away like this? Or perhaps like this? I can say with reasonably high confidence that it would be much harder to do this if it weren't for the modern version of a radio station.

      It's ironic that the only comments on Amazon for one of her CDs is samples please. I also note that there's no offering for buying her work on MP3s. I mean no disrespect to your sister but, from appearances it isn't YouTube and Spotify that's the problem. It's the out dated business model under which she's attempting to operate. People do not buy CDs nor do they listen to FM radio to anything near the same degree with which they did 20, even 10 years ago. YouTube, Pandora, Spotify are their modern equivalent. Unlike FM radio though, their Internet cousins actually do pay the artists--in an arguably reasonable proportion to the revenue generated. In that respect the artist is actually better off. Try asking an FM radio station to cough up money as compensation for the music they play. Just like the radio of decades past drove CD/cassette sales, so now do their Internet cousins, but not so much CDs but rather MP3s--which she's apparently not selling.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    5. Re:Recording Labels by s.petry · · Score: 1

      And... since I'm not registered on this board or something, I guess I'm down as "Anonymous Coward". OK well, - I'm Kate, Maria Schneider's sister. There! Not anonymous!

      Wow, your sister was really quick to disown you. :)

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    6. Re:Recording Labels by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

      Having posted only two videos related to her work, and the fact that she does jazz, I'd say that's doing exceptionally well.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    7. Re:Recording Labels by Luthair · · Score: 1

      The good news is, no one on the internet has any idea who Maria Schneider is, therefore virtually no one is pirating her videos on Youtube.

  15. Re:Why does this matter? by zlives · · Score: 1

    assumptions based on patterns are not "unintelligent", even erroneous assumptions require intelligence.

  16. As a Minnesotan... by argStyopa · · Score: 2

    ...(sigh).

    Why are the people from MN that have any sort of fame such nutballs?

    (looks at self)
    We're not ALL nutballs up here, are we?

    --
    -Styopa
    1. Re:As a Minnesotan... by swb · · Score: 2

      It's the cold weather. I mean, every spring I find myself slightly less able to recover from another winter. I think it makes you crazy. I know it makes you drink, the people I know from North Dakota drink in amounts that would make the drunks I know in Minneapolis blush, and the North Dakotans think its just the normal amount you drink.

    2. Re:As a Minnesotan... by powerlord · · Score: 1

      Alcohol is Gods own Antifreeze

      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
    3. Re:As a Minnesotan... by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

      Could be worse. Our neighbor is in an entirely different league.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
  17. Re:Racketeering? Really? by magarity · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have to agree this is the wrong term. Racketeering is mainly protection money and such. If Youtube was telling musicians that they better have their videos on Youtube or else Guido and the boys will come rearrange their vocal chords, that's racketeering. The RIAA's chasing after stores for having the radio on, waiters for singing Happy Birthday, etc, is a much better example of racketeering.

  18. Re:Why does this matter? by tsqr · · Score: 1

    with ~300 Hours of content uploaded every minute, (2014 stats) that would require, let's do the math, 300 hrs x 60 x 24 = 432000 hrs uploaded per day, that would require 54000 8 hour shifts to go through all the content. 54000+ employees to monitor every video uploaded for copyright infringing content. Yeah, I don't think that's feasible.

    Disclaimer: I personally think she's wrong. Having said that, if she was right and YouTube is breaking the law, the fact that it would be impossibly onerous to comply with the law would be immaterial. A business doesn't get a pass on "criminal racketeering" because "expensive".

  19. from the major record labels to the MPAA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "...everyone from the major record labels to the MPAA and back again"

    That's not everyone. That's hardly anyone. In fact, that's pretty much only one, single interest group.

    "In closing, Schneider has several key demands. Front and center is a call for “takedown and staydown“, the mechanism championed by every Google critic thus far in this DMCA consultation."

    If we're going to be hard on that side of the issue, then it is only fair to be just as hard on the other side. What penalty should be applied to an organization that files an obviously false takedown request? After all, they have knowingly falsified a legal document. Criminal prosecution? Or just a massive civil fine, payable to the owner of the copyright that they impugned? Funny, she didn't mention anything at all about this problem...

  20. Re:Why does this matter? by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 2

    How does this affect me?

    It is interesting to see other perspectives of copyright law, and what 'the other side' might be thinking of issues. If she is successful in convincing the masses of her position, it will strengthen what many on /. believe are already overly broad, overly strong and otherwise misguided IP protection laws.

    It would affect you, in that any entertainment you consume would likely become even more expensive. Also, if you use youtube, it might eliminate the reason most of us go there, and leave it as a venue for otherwise unemployed people to try to make a living on ad revenue hosting clips about nothing.

    I'll get modded down to -1 for asking this because Slashdot users don't like answering important questions

    No, you will get modded down because people think you are trolling.

  21. Translation: by rahvin112 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Translation:

    Google makes lots of money. I think I'm entitled to some of it. The government should make them give me some money.

    1. Re:Translation: by caffiend2049 · · Score: 1

      Translation:

      Google makes lots of money. I think I'm entitled to some of it. The government should make them give me some money.

      Sounds to me like the RIAA has *finally* figured out that suing the music consumers wasn't doing a lot of good, as they were both not well funded and becoming scarcer. Google on the other hand does seem to be a cash cow. Just how do we crack this open?

      --
      Pandering to the lowest common denominator would be less frequent if more people were prime numbers.
    2. Re:Translation: by sl3xd · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Apparently there are people who don't understand economics, and just how wealthy some people are.

      Several individuals on Google's board can buy a controlling interest in the entire US music industry -- lock, stock, and barrel, with personal money.

      If only one of the board members wanted to go full asshole, they could buy out a controlling interest in the companies suing them, fire the morons who started the lawsuit, and ensure the artists involved never publish with a major label again.

      And what could the music industry do? File a lawsuit because somebody bought (a lot of) stock in their company? Hostile takeovers are not new.

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
    3. Re:Translation: by NicBenjamin · · Score: 1

      Technically Schneider seems not to be RIAA. She left her label quite a few years ago, and is an independent at the moment.

      She also seems to be spitting mad that she wasn't able to get into ContentID, and absolutely convinced the denial was primarily because she doesn't have aYoutube channel. The "spitting mad" makes it hard to tell how much serious her proposals are, because they could just be hyperbole. Frankly it's incoherent enough that I couldn't finish reading it.

      I don't doubt the RIAA will try to take advantage of this somehow, particularly if she starts a grassroots musician's rebellion, but if there is one puppet they are not pulling strings on it's this woman.

    4. Re:Translation: by rahvin112 · · Score: 1

      He didn't bother to look into the ACTUAL value of the music industry. This includes Disney, one of the larger companies in the US by market cap. Besides, for the public companies (the vast majority) you'd need to do essentially a hostile takeover. Stock rules prohibit you buying more than 10% of the stock without a cooling off period and a public federal filing with the SEC. Which means the price will blow up shortly after the filing which would dramatically increase your costs. This is the reason hostile takeovers are extremely rare.

      Though I have no doubt they could get controlling interest in one of the majors or even more than one buying the entire music industry outright? Hardly. Besides even if they did they would have to maintain all the existing contracts.

    5. Re:Translation: by rahvin112 · · Score: 1

      Disney, like Sony has a recording division for music and an entire back catalog that dates back decades. The fact that Disney, Sony, et. al. has other assets was EXACTLY my point. Most music companies are owned by much larger conglomerates. Warner Music is part of the Time Warner Group for example and includes HBO, a cable company and a dozen other assets that are worth billions alone.

  22. Re: Why does this matter? by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    It is important to music listeners (you?) because income is what motivates many artists to produce music (initially and on a continuing basis), and this is an issue that directly affects artist income. It is not by any means the only issue, but it is not a minor one either, either in their perception or in actuality.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  23. Sure is. Thank the voters. by fyngyrz · · Score: 2

    As with much of the rest of the legal corpus. But the voters keep electing the rich, and they keep writing law that favors the rich. It's not a mystery. It's profound validation of the concrete social and economic effects of the Gaussian.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  24. Re:Why does this matter? by Killall+-9+Bash · · Score: 1, Insightful

    RIAA extorts money from google for their songs appearing on YouTube. Nevermind that the majority of these uses fall under 'fair use'.

    Then some nobody "artist" comes along and tells google they are stealing from her. Right. I was totally going to buy her album, but I listened to it on YouTube instead.

    --
    "Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
  25. Re:Why does this matter? by grumbel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Did Youtube demand money from her in exchange for fire, theft, and kneecap insurance?

    Yes, that's one of the main points of her open letter. Youtube has a system in place, Content ID, to stop piracy and it works quite well. The crux is that they only allow it's use to musicians who have agreed to license their content to them or at least that's assumed, as they don't publish any rules. Everybody else gets left in the dust and isn't allowed into Content ID and thus their content can be shared on Youtube without permission. Which according to her argument violates the requirements for "Safe Harbor" protection and makes Youtube guilty of mass copyright infringement, as that "Safe Harbor" law requires technical measures to be made available to everybody.

  26. It's obvious Youtube is abusive by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 2

    Youtube violates the hell out of copyright.

    And that's in any sense of the word- not just stuff over 28 years old.

    Furthermore they make huge amounts of money via advertising off of other artist's copyrighted works without properly licensing the artists and (as far as I have been able to determine) without paying them a dime.

    The day after a new song comes out, there are many copies of the song on Youtube. Often entire movies are posted as well. It's so bad that I have to suspect it's a temporary situation.

    I strongly disagree with copyright past 28 years (and don't respect it in my actions) but what Youtube is doing is 0 day copyright infringement. Enjoy it while you can, but it's so bad, I can't see how it's going to last. It's clearly illegal. It's clearly a massive pattern of behavior and repeated infringement.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    1. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by gaiageek · · Score: 2

      If Google was uploading these works, they would be violating copyright. They aren't (users are) and they have an effective system for removing videos that are copyright violations -- a system so effective it has also been abused by copyright owners to takedown videos which are not in violation of copyright (their use falls under "fair use").

      Your seem to be claiming that Google is making tons of money off of videos that are genuine copyright violations, but you're not offering anything to back that up.

      As said above, this seems like nothing more than an attempted money grab by the usual suspects.

    2. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Your seem to be claiming that Google is making tons of money off of videos that are genuine copyright violations, but you're not offering anything to back that up.

      For most videos that get taken down, they were up for a while first and got at least one view (most of the time). If a pre-roll ad plays on just one of these, they made money.

      A huge amount of their content is a copyright violation just waiting for a takedown notice. Need citation? 32% of all content uploaded to Youtube is taken down within 24 hours.

    3. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by omnichad · · Score: 1

      There's no motivation, other than "don't be evil." Otherwise, they're getting paid to wait for the DMCA takedown notice to come in.

    4. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

      I call bullshit. I've attempted to upload partial clips of movies and songs to youtube and it seems no matter how small a section or trivial the use is, Google's auto-detection system takes it down in minutes - often before it even goes live.

      Anything that slips by those filters is likely done with some consent from the content holder - be it explicit or back room "astroturfing" publicity. I suspect all of them are generating revenue that goes right back to the rightsholders. Now, the real issue is that rightsholders don't like the value their getting for their content, even though its an open advertising market that sets the price for viewership eyeballs (or eardrums). In many cases, its the fact that the money paid out is split umpteen ways and the writer with a 5% credit on his ASCAP card is complaining about getting a few thousand dollars for a billion views, when the total take is well into 6 figures. (how do I know streaming services pay? I have a singer-colleague who wrote and performed an original with her band, got 1M plays in one quarter, and walked away with a $1300 royalty check - for exactly zero effort over what it took her to put her songs on CDBaby) The money is real, they're just not happy with their share - and it's not really Google's fault.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    5. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by shawn2772 · · Score: 1

      There's no motivation, other than "don't be evil." Otherwise, they're getting paid to wait for the DMCA takedown notice to come in.

      You're assuming that pro-actively enforcing copyrights is the right thing to do, and that not doing it constitutes being evil. I deeply disagree with that assumption.

      Disclaimer: I work for Google but I'm speaking only for myself.

    6. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by omnichad · · Score: 1

      It's a bit of a split conscience. On the one hand, fair use content should never be flagged. On the other, making ad money off of someone else's work without any way to get fair compensation isn't great either.

    7. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by shawn2772 · · Score: 1

      It's a bit of a split conscience. On the one hand, fair use content should never be flagged. On the other, making ad money off of someone else's work without any way to get fair compensation isn't great either.

      There is a way for copyright owners to get fair compensation. They can send a takedown, per the law, or they can sign up for ContentID, which YouTube isn't even obliged to offer.

      But my point is that the problems with copyright law go far beyond questions of fair use. The majority of copyrighted content should be in the public domain. The content owners have stretched copyright so that it covers so much, for so long, that it's no longer a fair deal for the public.

    8. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by omnichad · · Score: 1

      That's not compensation. That's just stopping Youtube from making additional money off the content. At the end of the takedown, the only person who made any money is Youtube.

    9. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by shawn2772 · · Score: 1

      That's not compensation. That's just stopping Youtube from making additional money off the content. At the end of the takedown, the only person who made any money is Youtube.

      And? The copyright owner didn't lose anything whether YouTube made money or not. If the copyright owner wants to make some money, they can upload their own copy, which YouTube will duly monetize for them. If they want YouTube to actively police their content, they can sign up for ContentID.

      I think you're really stretching here to try to make YouTube out as the bad guy. It's not even clear to me what would make you happy, other than perhaps YouTube returning to the advertisers any money they collected on a video prior to receipt of a takedown? Then the the advertisers would get free advertising, but the copyright holder's situation wouldn't have change at all.

      Seriously, what solution would you propose?

    10. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by omnichad · · Score: 1

      I think you're really stretching here to try to make YouTube out as the bad guy

      I've been clear that this is due to the way DMCA is set up. Youtube is just making money off of the bad situation.

      Content ID breaks fair use. I would never sign up for Content ID and have innocent videos flagged. That's also bad.

    11. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by shawn2772 · · Score: 1

      I think you're really stretching here to try to make YouTube out as the bad guy

      I've been clear that this is due to the way DMCA is set up. Youtube is just making money off of the bad situation.

      Okay, but you still haven't said what you think YouTube should do.

      Content ID breaks fair use.

      The problem with fair use is that it's effectively impossible to know if it applies without going to court. There are some guidelines in the law, but there's no way that YouTube (or any third party) can possibly evaluate whether or not a given use qualifies. That's something that the copyright owner and the potential infringer have to resolve for themselves, perhaps in court. ContentID in no way breaks that, it just moves the burden of scanning for potential infringements from the copyright owner to YouTube (essentially a service YouTube provides to the content owner in exchange for a license). Consider scenarios with and without ContentID:

      Scenario A: Random person uploads a video containing your content. You notice it and file a DMCA takedown. YouTube takes it down. Uploader files a response claiming fair use. YouTube puts the video back up. You and uploader resolve the dispute between yourselves (perhaps in court) and act accordingly.

      Scenario B: Random person uploads a video containing your content. ContentID notices it and takes the video down. Uploader files a dispute, claiming fair use. YouTube puts the video back up and notifies you. You and uploader resolve the dispute between yourselves (perhaps in court) and act accordingly.

      Where Fair Use is broken is that most content owners are trans-national megacorps and most uploaders are individuals who are very unlikely to challenge the deep-pockets owner even if their use is fair.

      Actually, ContentID partly solves that problem because many content owners don't necessarily want the content taken down, they just want to get paid for it, and perhaps apply some other terms. For example, I made this video tribute to my mother-in-law for her funeral. It's a slideshow set to some songs that she loved... those songs are under copyright (in spite of their age). After I uploaded it, YouTube notified me that copyright-protected content was found in it, and that means that I cannot monetize it. I'm fine with that; I have no desire whatsoever to make money from it (nor any expectation that it would be interesting to enough people) and the way ContentID works, I am still free to use YouTube as a vehicle to share that video. Without ContentID my video would have gotten taken down entirely, because DMCA takedowns down't allow the owner to say things like "it's okay to leave it up, but send us the ad revenue."

      Now, if my video's use of those songs really is Fair Use, and if I saw an opportunity to make a lot of money by monetizing it, I could file a dispute and then go negotiate with the owners of the songs, or we could go to court.

      I would never sign up for Content ID and have innocent videos flagged. That's also bad.

      But what happens when innocent videos are flagged is totally up to you. You could set as your policy that you want to allow all use of your material. Or you could reserve the right to monetize your material, but have YouTube notify you of flagged videos and you could review them an allow those that are innocent. Or you could reserve the right to monetize and rely on uploaders of innocent videos to dispute, and review the disputes and allow those that are innocent. Or... there are a variety of other policies you could apply.

      Seriously, I think ContentID is about the best solution to the problem of Fair Use in video sharing that is allowed by law.

    12. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Okay, but you still haven't said what you think YouTube should do.

      If the owner of the video is signed up for revenue sharing, the comments here seem to indicate that flagged video revenue is kept by Youtube or sent to the copyright owner, even after the DMCA claim is resolved in favor of the video owner. A correction of that is one step in the right direction.

      Also, I don't think individual content owners (aka "the little guy") can sign up for content ID.

    13. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by shawn2772 · · Score: 1

      Okay, but you still haven't said what you think YouTube should do.

      If the owner of the video is signed up for revenue sharing, the comments here seem to indicate that flagged video revenue is kept by Youtube or sent to the copyright owner, even after the DMCA claim is resolved in favor of the video owner.

      It's not at all surprising to me if YouTube doesn't retroactively figure out what payments were made to who and when due to that video and attempt to take back funds that were paid to the wrong party and pay them to the right party. Just thinking about what would be involved in that makes me shudder. What a pit of snakes. Especially since if YouTube did that they'd need to do it in all cases, even when the money involved is trivial.

      If the money isn't trivial, then it seems to me that the uploader would have a slam dunk civil suit to recover the loss. If the court determined that the copyright owner's actions were willful, I think treble damages would apply. The uploader would have to subpoena YouTube to get the records of payments to the copyright owner, but I doubt that would be a problem.

      That still leaves open the possibility that a big copyright owner regularly makes claims against videos it doesn't own in order to extract the little bits of revenue while the process is followed. But YouTube keeps track of "strikes" and will eventually shut down channels who upload too much content they don't have rights to, or content owners who make too many claims to content they don't own, or shouldn't control.

      A correction of that is one step in the right direction.

      That step seems likely to land YouTube in a lot of litigation.

      Also, I don't think individual content owners (aka "the little guy") can sign up for content ID.

      According to the web site, the requirements are that you must own "exclusive rights to a substantial body of original material that is frequently uploaded by the YouTube user community". Based on the categories offered on the sign-up form, I'd guess "substantial" means you have to have a couple of dozen works. And, of course, they have to be "frequently" uploaded by the YouTube user community, which I take to mean "often enough that policing them manually is difficult". My guess is that this last point is the key one, since the sign-up form also asks if you've sent takedown notices in the past.

    14. Re:It's obvious Youtube is abusive by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      It's laughable for Google to claim that they can't identify copyright violations

      They do. They have a whole system for it; ContentID. Register for it, and Youtube will start scanning uploads against the works you provide. It is, however, not their legal duty to proactively check every upload to be certain that the user who uploaded it hasn't uploaded something that's unauthorized. You're asking them to do a lot of work for free at that point. It's only their duty to take down an upload when a copyright holder flags it.

  27. Marketing. But for whom? by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    Marketing to those who habitually gravitate towards non-remunarative content. It's like marketing any free thing; without a reason to buy or re-buy, or enter into a separate cost-based consumer channel, it's an expense, not an income booster. The question is, as always, does youtube lead in that direction, or does it primarily replace purchases with free-to-the-consumer downloads? While, as TFC says, monitizing ads that lead elsewhere than into the artist's pocket?

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  28. Re:Why does this matter? by Hylandr · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Please keep in mind that we aren't yet aware what kind of agenda the new Slashdot owners will be pushing here, and this article may be an early astroturf attempt at generating bad press for technologies that even major record labels are using to propagate their media.

    Youtube is a threat to their current business model of threatening to sue downloaders for random sums that sometimes number in the millions. Which ironically is more racketeering than Google's monitization of channel revenue.

    At this point I see a decline in MPAA / RIAA revenue as more people shift to Youtube as more labels create legitimate channels with clearer royalty tracking.

    --
    ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
  29. Maria Schneider is a great jazz composer by coldsalmon · · Score: 1

    It seems that a lot of people in the comments don't know who she is, but she is one of my favorite musicians, and certainly one of the greatest living jazz composers. Obviously she has no legal argument for claims of racketeering, but her general opinion on matters of music and the business of music deserves attention. She is an extremely talented composer who is trying to make a living producing top-tier music. If anybody is making it difficult for her to do that, we ought to examine why that is, and we ought to listen to her opinion about what's fair and what's unfair. It's already hard enough to make good music. It's too bad that Slashdot is publishing this with a sensationalist headline, and linking to a sensationalist summary that goes out of its way to make her sound crazy. Here is a more pertinent quote that sums up the real issue: "for the vast majority of the artistic community, including me, and every musician I know (and I know thousands), YouTube is a resounding disaster." Here is her actual letter, if anyone cares: https://musictechpolicy.com/20...

    1. Re:Maria Schneider is a great jazz composer by geek · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It seems that a lot of people in the comments don't know who she is, but she is one of my favorite musicians, and certainly one of the greatest living jazz composers.

      The irony here is that Jazz isn't supposed to be composed........................

    2. Re:Maria Schneider is a great jazz composer by Solandri · · Score: 2

      Talented as she may be, opinions like hers are born from a lifetime of entitlement under a Copyright system which lets them work once, and collect money for selling the same work over and over. No other business or occupation operates like this - after you've been paid once, if you want to be paid again, you have to do new work. The closest is the rental industry, and they still have to pay for maintenance and replacement costs as the things they're renting out break down and wear out.

      Wedding photographers went through exactly this shift in business. They used to shoot the weddings for free, then charge for the prints and reprints - collecting money for selling the same work over and over. The advent of low-cost scanners and inkjet photo printers forced them to realign their business model with reality. Nowadays, wedding photographers charge you up-front to shoot the wedding, and they'll give you the prints at cost or even free. You're paying for a one-time service instead of a product. Which more accurately represents what's actually going on - the bulk of the photographer's production costs are in the photography, not in the prints. Just like in days past when composers would write music on commission as a service, not get an artificial monopoly on selling a product - the printed composition. The bulk of the composer's production costs are in the composition, not in the copies of it which are reprinted.

    3. Re:Maria Schneider is a great jazz composer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      yes, I better alert Duke Ellington immediately!

    4. Re:Maria Schneider is a great jazz composer by art123 · · Score: 1

      Entitlement? Yes she is entitled if that means deciding how her creation should be distributed. Every musician, author, photographer, or software developer in existence chooses how their works should be distributed and if they choose to charge for each "copy" that is their right.

    5. Re:Maria Schneider is a great jazz composer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The irony here is that Jazz isn't supposed to be composed........................

      Oh dear. Where did you pick up such a strange idea? Just because a certain genre features heavy improvisation doesn't mean it's not composed. What do you think the performers are collectively improvising on exactly?

    6. Re:Maria Schneider is a great jazz composer by hajile · · Score: 1

      Your control of what you make ends when you sell it to someone else. In the digital age, this means selling something opens you up to that person having an infinite number of copies. The only difference is that the government believes selling what you bought is reason enough to strip you of your "god-given rights" it claims to provide, to steal all that you have worked for, to take away freedom and inflict permanent harm.

      What about the poor author then?

      There are many means of making money without harming others. The first is to not sell something unless you get the price you desire (this is what developers do as do book authors when you consider that most books are out of print within 5 years). The second is patronage by someone interested in your continued creation of works (a very ancient and proven tradition). The third (and particularly relevant to musicians) is to offer performances for a fee. There are alternatives, but using the government as your personal mafia is a much lazier solution for corrupt artists and businessmen.

    7. Re:Maria Schneider is a great jazz composer by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Wedding photographers went through exactly this shift in business. They used to shoot the weddings for free

      Citation needed.

      It's true that they've moved to a pay-once scheme, but that's because people don't need prints any more if they can view them digitally. It's not because inkjet printers were putting them out of business. Nobody wants prints except maybe one 8x10...maybe.

    8. Re:Maria Schneider is a great jazz composer by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

      She may be a great composer, but she comes across as a raging bitch who thinks that Alphabet is personally out to destroy her. She has the same myopic view as the libertarian prepper that thinks Google is out to look through their email for their private porn collection. Alphabet doesn't give a shit. At all. About any one person or entity. They sell eyeballs on a targeted, relevant basis. They match people who like things, with people who want sell stuff that matches the things people like. That's it.

      Now, the more stuff that's on Youtube, the more opportunities there are to sell stuff. No argument. Youtube, not surprisingly, makes it easy to upload videos. I honestly don't have any knowledge of the Content ID system, except that - from personal experience - it works too god damned well. ;-) But I should ask - if she's all fired hot about Youtube, why not the Exabytes of email and google drive storage that are used to pirate her works? Or is trading tapes still okay?

      Finally, I get that being a musician is a hard road, and that being a jazz musician is even harder. There's very little interest in jazz these days (in sheer numbers of listeners compared to other genres). So I get how she's bitter about it. And that's exactly how she comes across.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    9. Re:Maria Schneider is a great jazz composer by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

      If it wasn't for YouTube I'd have never heard of her nor her work. She should be grateful to YouTube for giving her work an audience, just as old fashioned radio once did. It's like trying to be friends with someone you've never met. An introduction is required.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    10. Re:Maria Schneider is a great jazz composer by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Entitlement? Yes she is entitled if that means deciding how her creation should be distributed.

      There are, and should be limitations on that entitlement. After all, that entitlement is a limitation on our natural ability to speak, express, and yes, copy. It's a radical move that we've just come to see as normal, and to justify any of that type of legal protection would require a compelling reason. The US Constitution gives the justification, that a temporary limitation is accepted because the public will benefit from more works. However, what many rights holders don't seem to believe is that this is supposed to be a balance, while in the last 50 years copyright holders have strongly tried to push the idea of copyrighted works as being "property," property rights that never expire. I don't agree with copyright being a property right.

  30. Well she's right by shellster_dude · · Score: 2

    She is right, Google is every bit as guilty as Google...which is to say they both shouldn't be held liable for what users upload. It is idiocy to criminalize a tool that can be use for a crime, instead of the criminal action.

  31. Re:Why does this matter? by MightyYar · · Score: 1

    She got her JD from the School of Hard Knocks.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  32. Not sure if serious. by mcmonkey · · Score: 1

    Identifying Ice Ice Baby as infringing the copyright on Queen's Under Pressure wouldn't be a false positive.

  33. Re:Why does this matter? by clovis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How does this affect me? Why is this important to anyone except Maria Schneider? I'll get modded down to -1 for asking this because Slashdot users don't like answering important questions. But this needs to be asked, and I challenge any of you to give me a real answer rather than insulting me. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone here is up to the challenge.

    1) How does this affect me?
          We cannot know the answer to that because we have no idea of who you are. Are you a musician? A Google/youtube employee? A lawyer? Those people would care a lot, but we have no idea who you are so we cannot answer your question. Only you would know what your interests are, and not everything that happens affects everybody.
    Don't ask this question again.

    2) Why is this important to anyone except Maria Schneider?
            She is a member of a community (published musicians) that has the share a common experience (or belief) that their works are being unfairly posted and uncompensated. This also affects employees of google/youtube and attorneys who may be interested in copyright law.
    Entertainment is a multi-billion dollar industry and an important part of the economy, as is google/youtube.
    This is explained in the articles linked to, and tells us that you are posting to an article that you have not read.

    You are asking us to read the article for you and explain it. How can you not know how annoying that is?

    3) I'll get modded down to -1 for asking this because Slashdot users don't like answering important questions.
        We do like answering important questions. We don't enjoy discussions with people who have NOT read the articles.
        You get modded down because your questions are about you and not about the posted article.

    4) But this needs to be asked,
        No, you are mistaken. Your questions do not need to be asked. How the article affects you, who we do not know anything about, does not need to be asked.

    5) and I challenge any of you to give me a real answer rather than insulting me.

    The purpose of Slashdot is to offer a variety of topics for discussion.
    Look at the top of the Slashdot web page. There is a line that looks like this:
    Topics: Devices Build Entertainment Technnology Open Source Science YRO

    This article is about YRO and Entertainment.
    People who are interested in YRO and Entertainment would be interested in this topic. others would skip over it.

  34. Re:Why does this matter? by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 5, Informative

    How does this affect me? Why is this important to anyone except Maria Schneider? I'll get modded down to -1 for asking this because Slashdot users don't like answering important questions. But this needs to be asked, and I challenge any of you to give me a real answer rather than insulting me. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone here is up to the challenge.

    No, you are getting modded down to -1 because you ask the exact same question over and over again regardless of the topic, indicating that you are more interested in trolling than getting an actual answer to your question. The only reason I am responding and quoting you is so people can see and recognize your pathetic attempts at begging for attention.

    Please people, stop responding to this guy.

  35. Re: Why does this matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Tell that to the banks.

  36. Time to do some work! by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 3, Insightful


    Maria who? what indignities has she suffered again? -free press??

    Sick and tired of artists crying because their work is "stolen" or someone is supposedly making millions on their work while they starve for food.

    The labels are milking you and tossing you out for the next "hip" thing. Worse, too many so called "artists" do not actually do any fucking work.

    They produce their one hit and expect an infinite revenue stream. Even football (not American) players do not feel so entitled.

    Once upon a time artists were paid for work. A performance, a sculpture, an act etc. Bands would go on tour and perform! (read work)

    So now just because we have ears we have to pay you every time we hear your song? because we have eyes we have to pay you every time we see a movie?

    I already paid for the movie/song/series. How? by paying for TV/radio license, for the netflix subscription, for spotify, for fucking cable; I paid for your shit several times over but they still want more. They say I was only renting it per use as per the EULA. Who the fuck reads the EULA that's a fucking joke. It can say I'm renting my dog to Satan no one will notice and because people are known not to read it it says things they;d not agree to.

    No additional effort was made for that additional use of mine, what was lost? nothing. It's not like money, It's not like copying a dollar bill. It does not inflate the economy and it certainly does not hurt sales by "making it available". Star Wars is highly pirated movie/content and does that decades long, multi-billion dollar franchise look like it's not profiting?

    So now we have a platform (many actually) that spreads some random "artist's" crap for free, leading to additional audiences and additional revenue opportunities for that artist and still some ignorant people keep bitching.

    How about you lazy fuckers work? You know, people work. Seen any surgeon that performed one operation then retire expecting money forever? that surgeon studied for many years, trained many years and has to perform yes, *groan* the same operations many times. Crazy huh?

    I'll pay to see an act in theatre per performance because you know, someone has to work to perform for my pleasure. I'll pay a band every time I see them because they do something for it.

    The entire model of charging "per use" for people to use their sense although legal is actually based in BS. One day we will be able to record thoughts, images we imagine and see and thus transfer them. What will happen then? will it be illegal to think copyrighted content? -this point may seem arbitrary but this is what copyright is, thought.

    I recorded a thought and now I want every to pay $9.99 for it. That's cool but unlike hardware thoughts do not seem to depreciate. I could sell a million copies and the price would still be $9.99 -the effort I put it was nothing compared to the effort so many people put in to earn $9.99.

    You see if I could automate my job function and sell it no one would need me to do any work any more. In order to earn money I would have to do a new function. Don't musicians do anything beyond record their work and sell that? after all, I already have a mastered copy of their best, auto-tuned performance. Why would I need them again? -unless of course, shockingly they did something new like performs live the way music actually sounds by doing actual work.
    I never promised to buy your shit to begin with, the fact I was willing to listen to it on youtube should be flattery enough that I'm a potential customer.

    The value of your copy of said work is what people are willing to pay for it. We are no longer willing to pay, fuck you, get a real job and fuck off.

    --
    A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
    1. Re:Time to do some work! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "the fact I was willing to listen to it on youtube should be flattery enough that I'm a potential customer"

      Ladies and gentleman, we found the biggest entitle narcissist on slashdot. You listening to youtube video is flattery to that video. Aaaaalright. And no, you are not potential customer. You are just freeloader. Which is fine as far as I am concerned. I am freeloader too. At least I am aware that I am not paying money and thus am not customer.

      Nobody asks you to buy her album and even less listen to it. She is asking youtube not to earn money from her work without paying her. That is how capitalism works for christ sake.

    2. Re:Time to do some work! by Perky_Goth · · Score: 1

      That is how capitalism works for christ sake.

      That's how capitalism is sold, but never how it worked.

  37. Re:Why does this matter? by Verdatum · · Score: 1

    You just fed a troll.

  38. She's right of course by goombah99 · · Score: 2

    I can listen to any copyrighted song I want pretty much just by using Youtube. I'm actually surprised that I've never found a service that has a way to construct song libraries by scouring youtube for a play list and possibly even autoripping them. Seems like a good bussiness model since youtube is the one guilty of making available copyrighted works if it comes to a legal battle.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:She's right of course by omnichad · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Seems like a good bussiness model since youtube is the one guilty of making available copyrighted works if it comes to a legal battle.

      Seems you missed the whole point of the article and the Safe Harbor provisions of the DMCA. Youtube is safe from litigation as long as they comply with DMCA takedown requests. If the copyright owner can't keep up with the hundreds of hours of video being uploaded per minute to Youtube, that's on them. That's the way the law was written.

    2. Re:She's right of course by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      I can listen to any copyrighted song I want pretty much just by using Youtube.

      Yes, and you'll never listen to those copyrighted songs that aren't on Youtube because no one knows or cares about the.

    3. Re:She's right of course by farble1670 · · Score: 2

      Youtube is deliberately and with malice of forethought providing a streamlined method for massive copyright violation

      Youtube is also the largest and most successful promotional vehicle for artists that's ever existed. Artists want the free promotional platform that earns them money through advertising and the subsequent record and concert sales, but also want Youtube to pay for for the massive effort of managing copyright violations for them.

      An artist should be able to say to youtube "anything with my name on it is prohibited", and then it becomes the responsibility of the uploader to demonstrate that the material is not covered by copyright.

      Yes that's not ripe for abuse or anything at all.

  39. Safe Harbor and ContentID by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 5, Informative

    The crux is that they only allow it's use to musicians who have agreed to license their content to them...

    I don't know how you got the idea that there was some form of licensing going on. YouTube is not reproducing the works covered by ContentID, so they don't require a license for the works.

    ...as they don't publish any rules.

    You mean these rules?

    Google scans every video uploaded to YouTube against its ContentID system. That's a few hundred hours of video per minute. This is also not the only way to enforce ownership rights on YouTube. Google is under no legal obligation to provide their ContentID service. It is the copyright owner's job to enforce their rights. Google cannot do that for them without an explicit agreement, and they have no obligation to make any such agreement with anyone. It is not part of the "Safe Harbor" exclusions, and it would not remotely make sense if that were so, since the point of those exclusions was to prevent service providers from having to police their networks.

    that "Safe Harbor" law requires technical measures to be made available to everybody.

    No, it requires that the service provider "accommodates and does not interfere with standard technical measures". They are not obligated to provide any such methods.

    No matter how much content owners would like for the onus for copyright policing to be on service providers, it is not the case and will never be the case.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
    1. Re:Safe Harbor and ContentID by omnichad · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Google scans every video uploaded to YouTube against its ContentID system. That's a few hundred hours of video per minute. This is also not the only way to enforce ownership rights on YouTube. Google is under no legal obligation to provide their ContentID service. It is the copyright owner's job to enforce their rights. Google cannot do that for them without an explicit agreement, and they have no obligation to make any such agreement with anyone. It is not part of the "Safe Harbor" exclusions, and it would not remotely make sense if that were so, since the point of those exclusions was to prevent service providers from having to police their networks.

      tl;dr - It's the DMCA, not Youtube at fault for this.

    2. Re:Safe Harbor and ContentID by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      tl;dr - It's the DMCA, not Youtube at fault for this.

      That's rather a bizarre interpretation. What exactly do you find fault with, and how would you change it, and still allow sites to host user-provided content?

    3. Re: Safe Harbor and ContentID by Forgefather · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A statement made with no understanding of section 230 of the DMCA at all. The section that clearly states that platform providers are NOT liable for copyright infringement on their site so long as they were not found to be willingly complicit in its uploading. The case against Mega Upload hinges on secondary liability, a concept that doesn't exist in the current copyright statutes, and the fact that Mega employees were uploading copyrighted content to the site.

      So long as no one can prove that actual Google employees were explicitly aiding the infringement of copyright on their service then YouTube is protected by section 230.

      --
      "There are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics"
    4. Re: Safe Harbor and ContentID by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      And who says that all copyright violations HAVE to go through the DMCA? Nobody. You have the option to use ordinary copyright law, which also works on electronic copyrighted materials. If I register a work and someone violates my copyright, I'm not going to go through the DMCA. I'm going to sue both the distributor and the uploader for statutory damages (which don't have to be proven in court - $150,000 per violation). Why use a stick when you can use a cannon, and make money doing it?

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    5. Re: Safe Harbor and ContentID by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      As the prophet George Carlin would say "You're full of sh*t!" Someone uploads a cracked copy of Word to your server, you don't need Microsoft's permission to delete it. Same with any other material, copyright or not.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    6. Re: Safe Harbor and ContentID by marka63 · · Score: 2

      The point of the safe harbour legislation is to remove this path provided the ISP meets the requirements of the safe harbour legislation.

      You can sue (nobody can prevent you doing that) but the chances of success are negligible unless you can show the ISP isn't meeting the requirements of the safe harbour legislation.

    7. Re:Safe Harbor and ContentID by omnichad · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The lack of fines/punishment for huge numbers of false or fraudulent takedown notices. The law incentivizes false claims and claims against fair use. There's no harm in trying to flag whatever you want.

    8. Re: Safe Harbor and ContentID by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      If I'm running a server, I don't need anyone's permission to delete anything, provided I have no agreement that says I must host what someone uploaded. However, if someone has uploaded a cracked copy of Word, I'm not liable. Microsoft (or someone acting on their behalf) can send a takedown notice, and if I comply with that I'm not liable. If the uploaded files a counterclaim, and I do the legally required things with it (including passing it on to Microsoft), I can put that copy up again after a certain period of time, and I'm not liable.

      You are completely overlooking the DMCA Safe Harbor provisions, which seems odd because they're constantly argued over here.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    9. Re: Safe Harbor and ContentID by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Nobody says you have to go through the ISP. Go directly at the person who uploaded. This has been done plenty of times, and the courts allow it. No need to use the DMCA.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    10. Re: Safe Harbor and ContentID by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      If you don't have a contract with the uploader whereby they are giving you a consideration for your service, you are free to delete anything you want, or close down the service completely. That's one of the problems with using free services - they can do whatever they want in terms of deleting anything and everything, so you better have backups. Or don't use a free service.

      The same applies to using a paid service where the contract includes the right to remove material deemed unacceptable. Your uploaded copy of a cracked version of Word will be deleted and there's nothing you can do about it under the contract. Tough.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    11. Re: Safe Harbor and ContentID by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      95% of the world is not governed by the DMCA. American exceptionalism? No thanks. I've had people try to take material that they falsely claimed copyright to try to use a DMCA takedown notice, and my hosting provider laughed at them.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    12. Re: Safe Harbor and ContentID by marka63 · · Score: 1

      And the distributor is protected by the safe harbour laws. The uploader isn't protected and never was. The whole point of the laws was to remove the ISP (distributor) from equation provided they follow the rules.

  40. Cal we all say... by bferrell · · Score: 1

    Streisand effect? I knew ya could

  41. Re: Why does this matter? by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    Some artists do; some artists don't.

    Some people, hearing such claims, realize that eating and paying the bills, not to mention planning for the future, aren't actually inconsequential issues, even if the claim is made in a perfectly hyperbolic manner.

    You, for instance, may have a very strong lean towards X; however, somewhere in your outlook, likely you're thinking that money will be handy in your pursuit of X. Related, you may be annoyed - to say the least - if someone decides, in a very preemptive manner, that they wish to interfere with your income stream(s.)

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  42. Re:Why does this matter? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Youtube has a system in place, Content ID, to stop piracy and it works quite well. The crux is that they only allow it's use to musicians who have agreed to license their content to them or at least that's assumed, as they don't publish any rules. Everybody else gets left in the dust and isn't allowed into Content ID and thus their content can be shared on Youtube without permission.

    So, what you're saying is that she's upset that YouTube doesn't give away their stuff (in this case, ContentID) for free? And, at the same time, she doesn't want to give her stuff away for free?

    Makes sense now....

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  43. Re:Why does this matter? by bughunter · · Score: 2

    I have no idea who Maria Schneider is

    Maybe you should look her up on YouTube and find out.

    --
    I can see the fnords!
  44. Re:Why does this matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This is less an indictment of Youtube, and more a defense of Megaupload.

  45. Re:Racketeering? Really? by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 4, Informative

    If Youtube was telling musicians that they better have their videos on Youtube or else Guido and the boys will come rearrange their vocal chords, that's racketeering.

    I believe her argument is that Google will only "protect" her works if she gives them a license to use her works. That could be considered racketeering or extortion.

    That said, Google asks for this because it is up to the copyright holder to defend their copyright. It's not Google's job. And, frankly, I'm sure artists would bitch if Google was using their works without their authorization.

  46. Sugar Free Jazz by Yergle143 · · Score: 1

    Man I thought all those free jazz cats were long gone....

  47. Re:Why does this matter? by DRJlaw · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes, that's one of the main points of her open letter. Youtube has a system in place, Content ID, to stop piracy and it works quite well. The crux is that they only allow it's use to musicians who have agreed to license their content to them or at least that's assumed, as they don't publish any rules. Everybody else gets left in the dust and isn't allowed into Content ID and thus their content can be shared on Youtube without permission. Which according to her argument violates the requirements for "Safe Harbor" protection and makes Youtube guilty of mass copyright infringement, as that "Safe Harbor" law requires technical measures to be made available to everybody.

    Let's look at the actual text of the safe harbor:

    (2) Definition. -- As used in this subsection, the term "standard technical measures" means technical measures that are used by copyright owners to identify or protect copyrighted works and --
    (A) have been developed pursuant to a broad consensus of copyright owners and service providers in an open, fair, voluntary, multi-industry standards process;
    (B) are available to any person on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms; and
    (C) do not impose substantial costs on service providers or substantial burdens on their systems or networks.

    Is ContentID offered by multiple service providers? Is ContentID described in any standards document?

    Are the costs associated with operating ContentID insubstantial is terms of not only money, but CPU time and storage?

    If you cannot answer those questions with a yes, then the fact that ContentID is not being offered to "everybody" -- meaning everybody who wishes to agree to "reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms," not merely terms of their own choosing -- is not relevant.

    I've read the open letter, and it's self-serving mush. For example, in her analysis of whether YouTube is a racketeer:

    A. ContentID is not a "standard technical measure" as defined in the DMCA.
    B. Stephen Carlisle should be sued for malpractice. You send a certified letter containing the items listed in 512(c)(3) to the designated agent specified here according to 512(c)(2). Done.
    C. Doesn't like 512(h) Subpoena To Identify Infringer, which clearly exists and assumes that subscriber identities are confidential, but wants to conceal the identity of the copyright owner, a right that does not and almost cannot exist.
    D. WTF? Seems to be the love child of a complaint concerning broken-link error message one gets after content has been taken down and a variation of the complaint in item C. Copyright owner authorizes the takedown of content allegedly owned by the copyright owner is pretty darn difficult to hide since we can pretty much infer that yes, the complaint was essentially made by the copyright owner.
    E, part 1. But those questions are in the DMCA. 512(c)(3) requires them, so yes, you get to answer questions when making a notification. 512(f) also has some laughably weak language concerning misrepresentations, so yes, you should probably be aware of that. 512(g)(3) requires lots of similar questions for counternotifications and a statement made under penalty of perjury. Seems fair enough.
    E, part 2. It's called a counternotification, not a pre-certification. Requiring pre-certification would be a fairly substantial violation of the first amendment. You're welcome to practice what you preach and pre-certify everything you post, including your own open letter, as a means of educating yourself as to why.
    F. The possibility that YouTube might support a user in a wrongful takedown situation is unfair. It's just little old me (get back behind the curtain, RIAA, MPAA, ASCAP, BMI, RightsHaven, Guardlex, and the rest of you guys, they're buying it!).
    G. Enforce my copyrights for me for free. Now.
    H.

  48. Just more copyright extension.. by thesupraman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No.

    What she wants is for Google to, at THEIR cost, provide protection for HER content.

    Remember, this is content that, due to copyright extension, will almost certainly NEVER enter the public domain which was originally part of
    the social contract that was copyright. The government agreed to provide legal protections for works, in return for those works
    entering the public domain after a reasonable time - a balanced agreement. That agreement has been continuously twisted by the copyright
    owners, who see it as the job of everyone else to protect their works, and they should keep the money and the works for ever (in effect).

    So no, she is just pushing the cart another inch forward, bending the social contract even further, and trying to claim that it is Googles job
    to enforce HER copyrights - which it clearly is not.
    If she wants her works protected on youtube its easy, employ someone to find content that is in violation, employ lawyers to write up the
    required legal papers, and go for it. There is exactly nothing stopping her from doing this.

    If she wants Google to do the work for her, then agree to Googles terms to provider her with this service.

    What she is trying to do is the same as wanting a radio manufacturer to be legally responsible for checking that the local barbershop
    isnt 'performing her works without a commercial license' because they turn that radio on, at the radio makers cost. ie: laughable.

    This is just another attempt at copyright extension people, and the public, who are being shafted already (thank you Disney, etal), should be
    rather angry at that. NO other industry has had such generous governmental and legal support for so long.

    Or perhaps she would rather keep her works for herself, and we just revoke copyright, as she does not want to keep up her side of the contract?
    I thought not..

    1. Re:Just more copyright extension.. by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      <sarcasm> Of course I should sign a contract with a thief, so that the thief will check all his stolen goods to make sure none of them are mine. Make perfect sense. </sarcasm>

      Hiding behind third parties does not remove your responsibilities. Much, perhaps most, youtube material is copyright violation.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    2. Re: Just more copyright extension.. by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 1

      My understanding is that YouTube is guilty of copyright infringement if they allow people to view/listen to her work on their website without her licensing them to do so, and that the DMCA shields them from such liability if they provide a mechanism for her to notify them that they are infringing and take the content down when she notifies them.

      So, no, they're not required to provide her with free services. But if she doesn't want their service hosting her content, and they do so, and they don't take the steps necessary to trigger the DMCA protections, they're guilty of copyright infringement.

      That appears to be her point, underneath all the rhetoric.

      --
      -1 Uncomfortable Truth
    3. Re:Just more copyright extension.. by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 2

      Hiding behind third parties does not remove your responsibilities. Much, perhaps most, youtube material is copyright violation.

      No third party has any obligation to enforce your copyrights. It is not the responsibility of service providers nor the public at large to defend your private interests.

      --
      Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
    4. Re:Just more copyright extension.. by Fnord666 · · Score: 1

      Hiding behind third parties does not remove your responsibilities. Much, perhaps most, youtube material is copyright violation.

      That still doesn't make it YouTube's responsibility to proactively police the content. Hell, they don't even have to reactively police it if they don't want to. They can take your DMCA complaint and wipe their asses with it if they so chose. Doing so would exclude them from the Safe Harbor provisions of the DMCA but that's their call.

      --
      'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
    5. Re: Just more copyright extension.. by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      It appears there is more to it. She feels that YouTube should proactively remove her content when she isn't the one posting it. Kind of like an Oracle should be expected to read your mind...but I don't think YouTube has started mind reading yet, so they still require a ContentID entry, or a DMCA request be sent for a video to be taken down.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  49. Re: Why does this matter? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    Google is the one actively enabling the distribution of copyrighted material without a license, for profit. They are the ones who have to get a license, on their nickel, and pay damages for infringement. They can go after the person who uploaded it. They have a system for detecting infringement, they should use it for all uploads and most of the problems go away. Of course that will mean uploaders supplying real contact info, but this is the same as any other commercial contract.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  50. Re: Why does this matter? by DRJlaw · · Score: 2

    Google is the one actively enabling the distribution of copyrighted material without a license, for profit.

    You need to explain this in far greater detail than you have. Google Inc. is a search engine that, until the recent reorganization into Alphabet and its subsidiaries, owned an interest in YouTube LLC.

    The two are otherwise distinct legal and operational entities. In fact, the entire point of an LLC is that the members are not liable for the actions of the LLC above and beyond the value of the members' interest in it, whether the members are natural person investors or conglomerate entity investors. In order to pierce the veil, so to speak, you'd need to show that YouTube was not merely owned by Google but, for example, an alter ego for Google itself.

    They are the ones who have to get a license, on their nickel, and pay damages for infringement.

    Since YouTube existed well before the Google acquisition, and YouTube LLC continues to run as a separate service/business, you'll forgive me if I don't blithely accept that conclusory opinion.

    They have a system for detecting infringement, they should use it for all uploads and most of the problems go away.

    Either you ignored the section of the DMCA in the post that you're responding to, or you've decided to make a moral argument that DMCA should be changed. Subjective moral arguments do not supersede unambiguous aspects of existing laws. Show that ContentID satisfies every element of the definition of a "standard technological measure," show that Google Inc. (or Alphabet) is legally responsible for YouTube LLC's practices, and then you can begin to argue that Google must pay damages for infringement.

    Of course that will mean uploaders supplying real contact info, but this is the same as any other commercial contract.

    Non sequitur. Nothing in the DMCA requires that uploaders supply real contact info, whether standard technological measures are involved or not. You don't get to create that requirement yourself, with or without the assistance of the courts. Legislating is a Congressional power.

  51. Re: Why does this matter? by tsqr · · Score: 1

    Tell that to the banks.

    You don't like "the banks", got it. What "criminal racketeering" laws did they break, again?

  52. Re:More comments from Maria by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

    “Congress seems to be too hypnotized by RIAA lobbyists, swarming like locusts, for the lawmakers to stand up straight with a firm sense of right and wrong, and defend the Constitution and the citizens of this country,” she added.

    Too lazy to create an account.

    ftfy

  53. Re: Why does this matter? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    Dodd-Frank.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  54. Siphoned where? by farble1670 · · Score: 1

    where income is continually transferred from the pockets of musicians and creators of all types, and siphoned directly into their own pockets

    No, money is siphoned from consumers' pockets to theirs (Youtube's). The creator never had the money, and would never had it anyway since they don't own a distribution platform. What creators need to get over is that the magic isn't in their creation, it's in the distribution of their creation.

  55. Unreasonable demands by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I read to the bottom of the article where she states her demands, and all of her already tenuous credibility flew out the window... Fingerprint scans required on any video upload? Also, she wants her takedowns to be private so the public won't "give her backlash"?

  56. Cry me a river... by wertigon · · Score: 1

    Seriously. If you are that concerned about Youtube profiting off your work - go and help with say, Diaspora, or ZeroNet, or BuddyCloud, or Identi.ca, or any of the other P2P social networks.

    If the top 100 most famous artists were to say "Allright, so here's the deal - we're going to start releasing our shit on this network" that network will take off like a space shuttle rocket.

    But, no, Youtube is good, preserve the status quo...

    --
    systemd is not an init system. It's a GNU replacement.
  57. Re: Why does this matter? by farble1670 · · Score: 2

    It is important to music listeners (you?) because income is what motivates many artists to produce music (initially and on a continuing basis),

    What percent of people that consider themselves "artists" make a profit? 1%? Less probably. No, artists aren't motivated by money. They are motivated by a love of the art. If money comes they take it like anybody would, and they take measures to increase their profitability like anyone would, but it isn't their motivation.

    The proof is the fantastic amount of art out their produced by nobodies be it music, visual, coding, etc. If you shut off payment for art all together there'd still be fantastic artists.

  58. Re: Why does this matter? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    They were doing it before the split. Google still makes infringing material available on youtube searches. Google bought youtube knowing that there was a huge copyright problem that the original owners were running into all the time.

    "Gee, I don't know who I got it from - some guy said it fell off the back of the truck." Do you really think that's going to save your ass from possession of stolen goods in court? Same as any retailer who has stock that he doesn't have an invoice for that matches the description of stuff taken in a heist.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  59. Re:Why does this matter? by Macdude · · Score: 1

    Google has created a website that allows people to post copyrighted works they don't have the rights to.
    If you don't want people posting works you own the rights to, Google has another service you can use to stop it.

    Hmm, sounds like racketeering, or would if Google charged for ContentID.

    --
    "Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
  60. Re: Why does this matter? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    No, but I happen to agree that if you like something so much, pay for the damn thing!

    Funny how many software developers whose jobs depend on making copyrighted stuff for a living think it's okay as long as it's not their stuff that gets ripped off. Hypocrites.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  61. I thought this was already addressed, of sorts by non0score · · Score: 2

    Didn't YT already address this (recently) by holding onto the revenue while a complaint is being resolved, and then sending the accrued revenue to the winning party when the complaint is actually resolved?

    http://youtubecreator.blogspot...

  62. Re:Why does this matter? by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

    Couldn't have said it better myself. Between this Slashdot article and YouTube I'd say she's gained the ear (and a potential customer--if only she'd sell MP3s) of at least a few hundred new people whom have never heard of her before now.

    Old guard artists can't seem to understand just how much they're shooting themselves in the foot by this non-sense. What FM radio stations were to them decades ago--and why radio stations to don't pay artists for playing their music--Internet media such as Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, etc. are now. These artists and their labels spend considerable resources keeping their works out of the hands of existing and perspective customers. A few decades ago, it was very unlikely that'd I'd buy a CD without having heard it on the radio, or borrowed a copy from a friend. Today, I won't buy an MP3 unless I've heard it on Pandora, or at least sampled it on Amazon. Somehow however, these artists have the notion that one, I'm interested in buying a bulky piece of plastic, and two, that I'll buy that piece of plastic on the merits of the cover art alone.

    --
    Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
  63. Re: Why does this matter? by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

    If an artist doesn't want me to know about them and their work, then I'm not really sure why I should care. If it wasn't for YouTube, I would have never been introduced to her work, nor would she have had an opportunity to impress me enough to purchase a piece of antiquated plastic on which her work is contained.

    Incidentally, in this case I'm not a huge fan of Jazz (read "not at all") and even if I were it would have taken a very impressive work for me to be motivated enough to buy that piece of antiquated plastic and go through the effort of ripping it into MP3s so I can to listen to it. But then I'm not everyone, some people might not mind ripping antiquated pieces of plastic into MP3s.

    --
    Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
  64. No good guys by mjmcc · · Score: 2

    Wow. What a mess. I don't think there are any "good guys" here at all.

    1. I think that Maria Schneider is actually correct in her main point. Google is absolutely abusing their power to get away with behavior that has been deemed criminal on the part of less powerful organizations, Megaupload being a prime example. I think that she makes a good case for calling their behavior "racketeering".

    2. The RIAA (and their individual corporate members) have clearly demonstrated that they cannot be trusted to apply the "takedown" provisions of the DMCA in a non-abusive way, and it would be crazy to give them any more power in this regard. They also whine incessantly about how the artists are getting screwed, and then they turn around and screw the artists as hard as they can get away with.

    3. The artists have been complaining for decades now that it is much harder for them to make a living than it used to be, and they are right. But by and large their proposed solution is "let's go back to the way things were", ignoring the fact that the public simply will not put up with that, and ignoring the fact that the Internet has changed the whole enterprise of music irrevocably.

    4. The public has now gotten used to getting their music for free (or for almost nothing) without any consideration for how the artists are going to actually make a living. It's not clear how much longer "being a musician" will be a viable career except for a tiny group of superstars, unless people start accepting that they have to actually pay *something* for the privilege of listening to the latest music.

    None of these groups seems to have any inclination to compromise, nor is showing any consideration for anybody's welfare except their own. What a mess.

  65. Re:Why does this matter? by tsotha · · Score: 1

    No. Google is required to take down videos they have been notified infringe on the holder's copyright. They are under no legal obligation to proactively try to clean copyrighted material from the site.

  66. Re:Racketeering? Really? by deek · · Score: 1

    I believe her argument is that Google will only "protect" her works if she gives them a license to use her works. That could be considered racketeering or extortion.

    And it seems to me that the artist has to license their work to Google, before Google has the legal ability to actually scan for it with their ContentID system. So basically, she wants Google to scan for copyright violations of her work, without legally allowing Google to do such a scan.

      Have I got this right? If so, score +1 for artist stupidity. At least we got an entertaining read out of it.

  67. Re: Why does this matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    are you making moral or legal argument?

    if it is legal, currently according to DMCA safe harbor Youtube is NOT guilty for infringement, they MIGHT BE ABLE to do more to help content owners, but they are NOT REQUIRED by law to do so, i even think they might, and should do much less

    if it is moral, according to my personal moral beliefs music, movies and software should be 100% free, and copyright/patents should not exist at all

    I am aware that every person has different moral beliefs, and you have right to judge world and other people/corporations by YOUR moral standards, but you cannot expect other people like me to accept YOUR moral standards instead of OUR OWN moral standards

  68. Write a letter by Luthair · · Score: 1

    Perhaps to counteract the false claims made by RIAA/MPAA more US citizens should be writing in as part of this request for comment.

  69. Re:Why does this matter? by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

    What? Her whole point is big record companies get their stuff covered by ContentID but smaller artists get nothing. That's what I'm assuming, obviously I didn't read the article, but I seem to have done a better job of not reading that you.

    --
    If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
  70. Re:Why does this matter? by Hylandr · · Score: 1

    Your comment makes my point precisely. Let me explain it more directly.

    Individual artists create a channel and post directly to youtube and monetize their stream. Once the artist monetizes their stream they will begin to earn royalties off the ad impressions their content attracted.

    This way the artist doesn't have to pay a service to publish and everyone wins. ** This is how business works **

    Conversely Major record labels could choose to do the same but there's no guarantee 'the little guys' will get a check from that no more than they will get a check from traditional CD or LP sales.

    What this MPAA/RIAA mouthpiece is doing is deflecting from the *real* racketeering which is done vie the MPAA/RIAA lawsuit threats / demands to pay up or face court which more often than not scares the victim into paying. Whether they were actually guilty or not. *** This is how Racketeering works ***

    See the difference?

    --
    ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
  71. Re:Because music labels share so much with artists by Cederic · · Score: 1

    Advertising revenue and actual sales from the people that found, enjoyed and chose to buy the music through Youtube, increased audience leading to higher music, merchandise and concert sales, and you're claiming they'll lose money on every song?

    Brilliant analysis, fuckwit.

    I guess you were talking to yourself before hitting 'submit'.

  72. Re: Why does this matter? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    You still haven't proven that Youtube LLC has in any way fallen outside of the Safe Harbor provisions of the DMCA. All the DMCA requries is that YouTube take down videos when it is notified that they infringe, nowhere in there does it say that YouTube is liable for anything that other people post.

    Despite what this ignorant grammy winner might claim, YouTube, and especially Google are not responsible to remove all infringing content as they have no way to legally do so, and in fact would gain additional liability if they were to try and police the content.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  73. Re: Why does this matter? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    They have a system for detecting infringement

    No, they don't. How could they make such a system?

    There's nothing in the law against distributing stuff copyrighted by someone else. There are provisions in the law against distributing stuff copyrighted by someone else without their permission, Any system to detect infringement would need to have some method of telling whether the material was licensed or not. Bear in mind that pretty much everything on YouTube is going to be copyrighted (the exception would be uploads of sufficiently old movies)

    It is possible to detect probable infringement by working with the copyright holder, who can presumably tell YouTube that any of their copyrighted material posted under certain conditions is infringing. I don't know whether ContactID works that way or not. If it does, Ms. Schneider has to deal with YouTube directly to get ContactID protection.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  74. Re: Why does this matter? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Artists are motivated by their art, and by money, and likely by other things (impressing members of the appropriate sex?). Don't pay for art and we'll still have art.

    However, for some fields of art, it's possible to improve them by doing additional work, such as tweaking the sound for music or editing for fiction. That stuff isn't nearly as much fun as creating, and people who do it tend to want money. Remove payment for art, and we get worse art than we might have.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  75. Re:Why does this matter? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    You might be able to answer these questions pretty reasonable, but you'd have to get off the cross first and moderate your victimhood attitude.

  76. Re:Why does this matter? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    ContentID is the "protection money" Youtube pays to not get sued, as they have several times in the past. Eric Schmidt specifically referenced the persistence of lawsuits like the Viacom one which alleged that Youtube profited off of videos featuring copyrighted content. That particular lawsuit was settled with undisclosed terms, but it wouldn't surprise me if adherence to a system like ContentID was one of the terms.

  77. Re:Why does this matter? by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

    Youtube streaming revenues are utterly pitiful, and no-one wants adverts in the stream, there's definitely a case to be made that anyone who uploads original music can use the same contentID system to identify if their stuff has been outright stolen by another channel (something that happens very often) so at least the original creator is getting the views they have earned - **that is how business works**

    --
    If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
  78. Re: Why does this matter? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    What percent of people that consider themselves "artists" make a profit? 1%? Less probably. No, artists aren't motivated by money. They are motivated by a love of the art. If money comes they take it like anybody would, and they take measures to increase their profitability like anyone would, but it isn't their motivation.

    Sure, artists express themselves through their art, and that's a wonderful thing.
    But at the end of the day, we live in a society where you NEED to bring in money. A not-insubstantial amount.
    Poverty sucks. Poverty really, really fucking sucks, and "I love the art, man" isn't enough at the end of the day when everything requires that you have money. Real artists need to be able to earn a living, and they shouldn't have to take a couple fast food jobs in order to be able to do art. Most people in our country think that a talented artist should be able to do it professionally, as their source of income.

  79. Re: Why does this matter? by farble1670 · · Score: 1

    Most people in our country think that a talented artist should be able to do it professionally, as their source of income.

    I don't think that. Art has no monetary value beyond what people are willing to pay for it, like anything else. If you can get money for your art, terrific, but you don't deserve anything just because someone crowned you a "talented artist".

    OTOH, if you want to do your art on nights and weekends after working for a living like the Rest Of Us, that's fine too.

  80. Re: Why does this matter? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    Read what I wrote - it's an argument against self-serving hypocrisy.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  81. Re: Why does this matter? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    To distribute, you need a license. Copyrighted material requires the license be in writing. So sad, too bad. Can't find the license to your copy of Windows when the BSA comes around? Awwwww.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.