French collecting society SPPF has filed a lawsuit against YouTube, claiming that more than 100 music videos from its catalogue which it had asked to be removed from the video-sharing site last year have been uploaded again. The society is asking for €10 million in damages.However, YouTube has hit back by pointing out that SPPF hasn’t signed up for the site’s Content ID scheme, which helps rights-owners to identify and take down infringing videos. “The protection of copyrights is best achieved by joint efforts between creators and online platforms, not by lengthy and costly lawsuits,” says a statement from YouTube.The news follows separate rows with PRS for Music in the UK and GEMA in Germany, although those were over licensing rates rather than copyright infringement.More YouTube news comes courtesy of US research firm RampRate, which has issued a report disagreeing with previous claims by Credit Suisse that YouTube costs Google $711 million a year to run, and makes a net loss of $470 million.RampRate reckons the costs are more like $174 million, due to peering traffic, buying bandwidth from low-cost providers, and running cheap data centres. The report seems quite opinionated, though: “Google is no doubt thrilled to let YouTube be known as a financial folly,” it claims.”In the dangerous waters of online content, a whiff of potential profit is an irresistible lure for predators such as copyright lawyers circling user-generated content monetization and content partners that are all too ready to turn on their distributors in a feeding frenzy.”
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