Is YouTube being fair to UK musos?

[Mindgames]

Anyone who uses YouTube from a UK connection will know they can't watch commercial music videos anymore, since Google Inc. removed them all in an argument with the UK PRS societies over royalties. Google says it's big, and corporate, and able to sit on anyone until they squeak, and so they don't much fancy paying people royalties for anything they show. PRS for Music argues that a royalty is a royalty, and if the TV and radio networks have to pay the accepted going rate, so should a website - especially one which clears billions in profits from pages which are popular because they show music videos. Google replies with "bovvered? face?"

Comments from several PRS4M members here, one or two of which you may recognize..

Which side are you on?

[Raza]

Youtube. Intellectual property is a wholly undesirable layer of law/ethics, and the more its rules are broken and proven unsustainable, the sooner we'll be rid of it.