Veteran manager Irving Azoff may have been late into the current round of anti-YouTube argument, but you can’t fault his enthusiasm.
He has followed up last week’s comments on YouTube and safe harbour with an open letter published on tech site Recode, castigating Google’s online-video service.
“If YouTube cares about copyright management then join the music business in its efforts to reform the DMCA. Or, better yet, you could really prove your love for music by not allowing music on to YouTube unless you ask the creators of that song for permission,” wrote Azoff, joining industry calls for a ‘take down, stay down’ policy when YouTube is notified about infringing content.
“You state with apparent pride that you have licenses with labels, publishers and PROs. But don’t confuse deals made out of desperation with marketplace deals made by willing participants,” wrote Azoff.
“YouTube has benefitted from the unfair advantage which safe harbours gives you: Labels can take the deals you offer or engage in an impossible, expensive game of ‘whack a mole,’ while the music they control is still being exploited without any compensation.”
The debate continues.
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