BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
23 Jan 2008

On a day when CBS-bought Last.fm announced a new initiative for free streamed music (and raised our hopes that labels aren’t idiots) today we get one sign that shows that indeed, record labels will kill any shot they have of online success.

I just got a first for WatchMojo.com (we’re not contesting, but not because we did anything wrong), but rather, because Van Morrison, Exile Productions and everyone else involved can go kiss my ass.

 

Dear Member:

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Van Morrison / Exile Productions claiming that this material is infringing:

Review of the Van Morrison record “Pay the Devil”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZrby5UU6d4

Please Note: Repeated incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to prevent this from happening, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube’s copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Centre to access the instructions.

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc.

This is ridiculous.

First off. I didn’t even recall the video. So I looked into it. We’re celebrating our 2 year anniversary today (WatchMojo.com launched on January 23 2006). Some of our earlier videos were, well, pretty much a video of someone sitting on the couch and talking. Suffice to say we’ve upped the ante a bit since then. We did not even migrate those old “talking head” videos to our new CMS when we relaunched on August 19 2007. So that video in question is not even on our site at WatchMojo.com, but it was on YouTube, one of many many syndication partners.

Initially I thought that we had maybe used a 5, 10 or 15 second snippet of a Van Morrison track.

So I saw the video. We didn’t even do that! I pressed play, sat and waited. I saw a host sitting on a couch with background music that was stock music… nothing.

No music from Van Morrison. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

Tell me what gives Van Morrison and Exile Productions any right to accuse us of anything?

Oh, at one time, for about 1 second, we flashed an image of the cover album. Was that a copyright violation?

Nope. Surely that is fair use. We were promoting this douchebag that no fan would recognize from a lineup of other douchebags and this is what we get?

Musicians are clueless, labels are helpless, the music industry deserves what it is getting. This accusation is a pretty good example.

Last.fm means well, but within… oh I’d say 6 months, record labels will kill this because, well, they’re idiots.

Don’t take that from me, I refer your attention to Exhibit 2 (Exhibit 1 was the bonehead email above) to Universal Music head honcho’s moment of stupidity to judge for yourself what we’re dealing with:

There’s no one in the record company that’s a technologist. That’s a misconception writers make all the time, that the record industry missed this. They didn’t. They just didn’t know what to do. It’s like if you were suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove his kidney. What would you do?

Hmm… off the top of my head? Call a freaking veterinarian you genius!

Apparently, despite a battalion of lawyers, I see there are no lawyers either, cause I know what copyright violation is and this ain’t it.

From Day 1, we’ve prided ourselves from being ethical, not ripping off music labels, film studios and being proper with regards to credit in trying some kind of best practices for new media producers and publishers… this, my friends, is the treatment we get back in return.

Worst of all, I presume that this Takedown Notice puts a black mark on our YouTube file.

Some people are too stupid to deserve any shot of victory or survival. These douchebags are it.