Warner Music Group has taken down tens of thousands of amateur videos uploaded on YouTube, citing an ongoing copyright dispute with the giant video sharing site.
"Thousands of videos disappeared," added Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer for the EFF. "Either they turned off the audio, or they pulled the video."
Many of the videos taken down are non-commercial family videos that contain clips of a Warner song in the background or videos that cover many of Warner's tracks.
"We and our artists share the user community's frustration when content is unavailable," Warner Music spokesman Will Tanous said. "YouTube generates revenues from content posted by fans, which typically requires licenses from rights holders. Under the current process, we make YouTube aware of WMG content. Their content ID tool then takes down all unlicensed tracks, regardless of how they are used."
Warner and YouTube have been trying to work out a licensing deal for months now and in December the label took the drastic step of removing all their officially uploaded music videos.
Many of the videos taken down are non-commercial family videos that contain clips of a Warner song in the background or videos that cover many of Warner's tracks.
"We and our artists share the user community's frustration when content is unavailable," Warner Music spokesman Will Tanous said. "YouTube generates revenues from content posted by fans, which typically requires licenses from rights holders. Under the current process, we make YouTube aware of WMG content. Their content ID tool then takes down all unlicensed tracks, regardless of how they are used."
Warner and YouTube have been trying to work out a licensing deal for months now and in December the label took the drastic step of removing all their officially uploaded music videos.
