With the click of a mouse every video on Youtube that features a copyrighted piece of music could rapidly be removed.
As Viacom sues Youtube for one billion dollars for hosting film and television clips there is also the music companies who want a piece of the action. Since Viacoms claim, Youtube has been removing thousands upon thousands of copyrighted clips. A large proportion of all videos hosted on the site contain copyrighted musical works and youtube is in a weak position and having to make deals with the music companies.
In September of last year Youtube signed a deal with Warner music to pay royalties on the use of Warner music in hosted videos however some companies are not so keen to make a deal just yet. Industry giant Universal for instance has claimed Youtube owes it millions. They could potentially cripple Youtube should they serve takedown notices and a vast percentage of all the videos go offline. Customer confidence would plummet as their collections were decimated. Youtube has stated it has technology to find copyrighted music in the hosted videos so this could happen should talks break down. The copyright holders are in a strong position to haggle.
Popular music is very much an achilles heel of Youtube and it will be interesting to see how these deals turn out and how they change the way the site operates in the form of increased advertising or a decrease in video choice.
Google to learn more :-)
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