A lot of people seem to have missed the point of my video Warner Music Group Sucks. The issue that video is concerned with is music licensing. I am of course referring to the partnership and music licensing agreement between Google/YouTube and Warner Music Group. Now that this partnership and licensing agreement has ended Warner Music Group has ordered ALL their videos and music to be removed from YouTube.
Please understand that Google/YouTube made these licensing agreements with the major record companies (including Universal Music Group, Sony/BMG and EMI as well as WMG) so that people who uploaded videos that have copyrighted music could do so with out worrying about getting sued by the major record companies or the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The major record labels still had the right to remove videos having copyrighted music even with these licensing agreements in place if they felt their copyrights were being infringed upon. These licensing agreements were also supposed to give the record companies an opportunity to make money off of YouTube and help promote their music.
All the major record companies are in the process of making new licensing deals with Google/YouTube. Warner Music Group had made demands that were unacceptable to Google/YouTube and vice versa. Please note that it was Google/YouTube that broke up their licensing agreement although it was WMG that issued the takedown order of all their music videos and music used in user made videos.
Please be aware that individual YouTube users can be sued by the copyright owners for copyright infringement especially if they try to challenge a takedown order of one of their videos.
This information may be hypocritical on my part since I have many videos using copyrighted music and photos. I am providing this information for educational and informational purposes only so that everyone can understand the copyright laws better and understand why their videos are getting taken down all of a sudden.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer. I only provide this information to make people aware of the situation at YouTube regarding copyright. If you need legal advice then seek professional legal counseling of your own.
A lot of people talk about Fair Use so I have provided some links about that topic as well.
A link regarding the Viacom vs Google/YouTube lawsuit is listed below too.
The information provided pertains to United States copyright law. You may want to check the laws in your country. Links for the Intellectual Property Offices in the UK and Canada have been provided.
Here are some links relating to copyright:
YOUTUBE LINKS:
http://www.youtube.com/t/howto_copyright YouTube Copyright Tips page
http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/topic.py?topic=10554 YouTube Help Center Page about Copyright
http://www.youtube.com/t/terms YouTube terms of use page.
http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines YouTube Community Guidelines page.
FAIR USE INFORMATION:
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html Fair Use info from the US Copyright Office
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/ Fair Use info from Stanford University.
http://www.copyrightwebsite.com/Info/FairUse/FairUse.aspx Fair Use info from copyrightwebsite
http://chillingeffects.org/fairuse/ Fair Use info from Chilling Effects
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/publications/fair_use_in_online_video/ Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video
US COPYRIGHT OFFICE (USA)
http://www.copyright.gov/
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE (UK)
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/copy.htm
CANADIAN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE (CAN)
http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr00003.html?OpenDocument
WIKIPEDIA ENTRIES:
Wikipedia entry about Copyright and Copyright Law:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
Wikipedia entry about Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA
COURT CASES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA#Viacom_Inc._vs._YouTube.2C_Google_Inc. Viacom vs. Google/YouTube
Royalty free music by Audionautix
http://www.youtube.com/audionautix
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