UMG Chairman Accuses MySpace and YouTube of Violating Copyrights
An article from the Houston Chronicle says Universal Music Group Chairman Doug Morris accused YouTube and MySpace of violating music video copyrights.
On Wednesday, Universal Music Group Chairman Doug Morris took a swipe at social networking, arguing that the sites assist users in violating copyrights of music videos.
"We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars," Morris said. "How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly."
Representatives of YouTube declined to comment on Morris' remarks, which were made during a Merrill Lynch Media and Entertainment Conference in Pasadena, Calif.
Ars Technica also has an article about Universal Music Group's targeting of MySpace and YouTube. Ars Technical also reported recently that YouTube co-founder Steve Chen has said, "What we really want to do is in six to 12 months, maybe 18 months, to have every music video ever created up on YouTube." The article says Chen is working with music labels. There has already been at least one music deal, The Paris Hilton Channel. The Chron.com article also says YouTube, the fastest growing web brand, is working with the music companies to add screening software that would keep unauthorized videos off the video sharing website.
Some of the most popular postings are copyrighted music videos that include Universal Music artists, such as Mariah Carey and the Black Eyed Peas. Other sites, such as Yahoo and AOL, also offer videos but pay Universal Music each time a video is viewed.
Universal Music insiders said the four major music companies — Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Group — are in talks with YouTube to adopt screening software that would keep unauthorized videos off the sites.
A YouTube search for Mariah Carey shows over 3,000 results and a Black Eyed Peas search also shows over 3,000 results. These results include music videos, concert videos and tv clips. There are also spoofs and lip synching from fans. While the music companies want to be paid for each music video view there are also many up and coming artists who want their videos to be seen as much as possible so they can get noticed -- like the musicians on YouTube's Musicians channel.
Eat the Press accuses UMG of being "out of ideas." Idolator points out Fall Out Boy's popularity. ZDNet's Digital Micro-Markets says the music companies should be applauded instead of being criticized.
