Sony Music Claiming Beyonce's Official YouTube Channel Violates Copyright?
from the left-hand,-right-hand? dept
It really is incredible how screwed up some things are at the major record labels. The latest, via David Johnson, is that it appears (at least as of this writing) that Beyonce’s official YouTube channel is blocked in the US due to a copyright infringement issue. I have no idea about if it’s blocked elsewhere, but perhaps readers from other countries can let us know. In case they get this sorted out, here’s a screenshot:

Filed Under: beyonce, copyright, takedown, youtube
Companies: google, sony music, youtube
Comments on “Sony Music Claiming Beyonce's Official YouTube Channel Violates Copyright?”
Erm...fail
Uh…yeah….erm…COPYRIGHT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ALLOWING A VIDEO TO BE DISPLAYED IN ANOTHER COUNTRY!!
I REALLY wish the music industry would STOP with this artificial restriction crap, then turning around and claiming its some kind of violation of RIGHTS (bullshit, its a CONTRACT issue at best, and only in certain cases anyway).
If you own the copyright, YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH IT. Isnt that the ENTIRE FUCKING POINT of all this “sue everyone” crap, because they are claiming that copyright gives them ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO ANY AND ALL FORMS of their material? Now suddenly there is a limit? Can you say talking out of both sides of your mouth?
Re: Erm...fail
Copyright has everything to do with that actually. If Sony doesn’t own the copyright in Botswana, they can’t stop the video from being displayed there. Copyrights are country specific.
Re: Erm...fail
Uh…yeah…erm…what’s legal in one country isn’t necessarily legal in another.
Also, one country’s copyright laws don’t necessarily have anything to do with another’s; some countries don’t even HAVE copyright laws.
So…how about file your own post under “Missing the Mark fail”
Re: Erm...fail
The studio owns rights to the songs if you selected them as your publisher…
beyonce is always a bad exmaple because she doesnt write many of her own songs. so the rights issue may have to do with song writers or other rights owners. she doesnt write or perform her own music so she is licensing it from others.
Re: Re:
beyonce is always a bad exmaple because she doesnt write many of her own songs. so the rights issue may have to do with song writers or other rights owners.
Wait, you’re actually now suggesting Sony failed to properly clear the rights for Beyonce’s songs? That would be an even bigger story.
Re: Re: Re:
Ahh sweet, sweet irony….
Re: Re: Re:
cara calabocaa
In Canada, I cannot watch the “Single Ladies” video on her official channel but can watch the Vevo version, through a YouTube search.
That’s not confusing at all.
Here in Brazil
“Beyoncé – Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” is not playing “This video contains content from Sony Music Entertainment, which has locked in their country on the basis of copyright.”
Could be
“beyonce is always a bad exmaple because she doesnt write many of her own songs. so the rights issue may have to do with song writers or other rights owners. she doesnt write or perform her own music so she is licensing it from others.”
Right but thats a LISCENSING (ie contract) issue, not copyright.
“Copyright has everything to do with that actually. If Sony doesn’t own the copyright in Botswana, they can’t stop the video from being displayed there. Copyrights are country specific.”
This is true. However, in a case like this (and knowing how restrictive these Big Media companies like to be) I’m betting that isnt the issue at hand. I’m betting dollars to doughnuts its SOLELY “We dont want to ALLOW this song/video in your country in this way, so we are going to claim a COPYRIGHT PROBLEM” where none actually exists. I would like more info to see which side this issue is on.
Re: Could be
While I wouldn’t go so far as to put anything on it (pun), I wouldn’t be surprised to find that is the case.
Re: Could be
RD spouted:
Licensing of what, if not copyright?
Access OK in UK
Video Beyoncé – Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) not blocked in UK
I would say it is much more likely that it is blocked everywhere and “in your country” is just a lie. Can anyone confirm that it is not blocked anywhere at all?
@HOS – Ha! Beat me to the post 🙂
Works ok in France
Treating the symptoms, and not the disease.
A bigger problem is how the US copyright and royalty system is setup.
If the USPTO was better setup like the European variant, it would lead to better accountability for using all types of copyrighted products, as well as more accurate royalty disbursement. This very YouTube issue seems to again be a symptom of the much larger problem with the USPTO needing an overhaul.
Re: Treating the symptoms, and not the disease.
The USPTO doesn’t deal with copyright…
Re: Treating the symptoms, and not the disease.
“better setup like the European variant”
yeah cuz that’s always worked in the past…. Newsflash, this country exists in the first place BECAUSE Europe is FUBAR. Always has been; nothing’s changed.
It’s not blocked in Australia as of this post, and Sony actually has the Gov’t granted monopoly on music in this country.
working here...
All the videos I could try out work here in Germany… which is really surprising considering the GEZ has a pretty short leash on sites like youtube for this kind of stuff. Gotta be a legal difference… but good luck finding out what that is (Germany has one of, if not the highest number of laws anywhere).
Treating the symptoms, and not the disease.
Or it could also be a “Contracts Management” issue at the labels. Either way, it seems that something, and we’re not sure what, within the current system needs to be re-evaluated and/or standardized so the type of animosity being created doesn’t alienate fans and customers.
Re: Treating the symptoms, and not the disease.
gee, Mike, I’ve never seen ANYTHING on this site in that regard……………………………………………………………………………………………….
Google getting back at Sony
Maybe this is Google’s way of getting back at Sony using the automated system Google put in place at the request of the labels to identify infringing content. Google could make the automated system function broadly enough to identify the labels’ own offerings to be infringing content so that the labels have to jump through the same hoops everyone else does in order to get the content back online.
Re: Google getting back at Sony
You mean Google would play games 🙂
They should block it in the U.S. until Sony can prove they have the “Rights in the U.S.” once Sony proves that they but in back on the site.
Then Google blocks it in Australia and Sony jumps through the hoops again. Google but the content back up.
Then Google blocks it in the U.K. then Canada, then Germany and so on and so on.
Doesn't work in Finland
“This video contains content from Sony Music Entertainment. It is no longer available in your country.”
it appears that Beyonce's official YouTube channel is blocked in the US due to a copyright infringement issue
BWAHAHAHAHHA.
This is priceless.
Yet they want ISPs to know exactly what is and isn’t infringing without any help. HAHAHA.
And, just because it was recent, and people are mentioning it here in the comments, I give you this:
http://www.xkcd.com/712/
Not the channel, but the video
The channel isn’t blocked, rather only the “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” in Sweden.
Way to piss off people, Sony.
It looks like it’s not Beyonce’s video that’s blocked, but just a video that Beyonce’s youtube account has *favorited*.
This is the user who posted the video that is blocked:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BeyonceSME
None of the videos *uploaded* by the Beyonce account appear to be blocked.
So it doesn’t seem that shocking, but there definitely seems to be a miscommunication between whoever’s running Beyonce’s youtube account and whoever at Sony is sending takedown notices.
Re: Re:
and this is one of the problems with our copyprivilege system, it favor big lazy corporations and enables them to shoot first and ask questions later requiring people to be held guilty of infringement until proven innocent.
These corporations are too lazy to even check and see if they hold a copyright on something before issuing a takedown and they lobby for a legal system that gives them no incentive to do so. They can simply create bogus takedowns and, if they later find they do not have the copyprivilege, they can then claim ignorance and not be punished. We need a legal system that encourages them to ensure they do have copyprivileges on something before issuing a takedown and that sanctions huge punishment for those who issue takedowns on content they do not own, regardless of whether it was intentional or not.
Yet the system prevents individuals from doing the same to corporations because there are punishments for intentional takedown notices, so an individual who issues a bogus takedown on corporate content will more than likely be punished for intentionally doing so. The system was intentionally designed this way.
Working in Japan.
Saturday, March 27 2010
04:48:48
Don’t judge me I can’t sleep.
Re: Re:
Insomniacs unite!!
That music clip give me the creeps LoL
Beyoncé Seems To Be A Pirate
First she was done for not paying performance fees, and now this. Seems like she’s someone with no respect for Intellectual Property rights…
Re: Beyoncé Seems To Be A Pirate
You mean no respect for intellectual property PRIVILEGES. And given the fact that such privileges do not deserve respect to begin with (ie: just look at the length of copyprivilege terms), why should anyone respect them?
Blocked in the Philippines.
Korea
Sadly, it works in Korea.
I’ve noticed a lot of songs that no longer play the original music on youtube. WMG ate up DEVO. Youtube is used to dj in bars in Korea. One day, US companies are going to send attorneys here to sue everyone since “copyright” doesn’t mean much here. Or maybe it means exactly what it’s supposed to mean and I’m used to US based copyright enforcement.
Portugal: not available
In Portugal is not available:
“Beyoncé – Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
Este vídeo inclui conteúdo pertencente a Sony Music Entertainment e já não está disponível no seu país.
I am in Trinidad and Tobago and it is also not available:
“Beyoncé – Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
This video contains content from Sony Music Entertainment. It is no longer available in your country
Re: same in Portugal
Exactly the same message here.
drewmo is right
As stated by drewmo above, this is not at all what sites are making it out to be – the blocked video was not one of Sony’s.
In fact, it’s easy to duplicate this behavior for just about any video – check this link to see that Beyonce’s Japanese version of “We Are the World” has also been removed:
http://www.youtube.com/user/beyonce?blend=1&ob=4#p/f/2/87-MUkH3fgU
Blocked in the UK
Only tried one of them.
“Beyoncé – Video Phone ft. Lady Gaga”
This video contains content from Vevo, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds
kelli
Hey Mrs. Carter how are you doing i hope to see you one day and maybe even sing or record a song with you i’m 16 years old im from New IBeria La. i love all of your songs…….
this is great
Copyright
The Raven King explains Copyright useage….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAyQf8uykEw
Germany no availability of due to Phony
Well the favorites are mostly blocked, the majority of the uploads is not. It’s interesting how many other alternatives they have if Sony is not the company. Or they just write “The video is not available.”
It doesn’t seem like there needs to be a company needed to claim something.
In America, most of my goth music vids are blocked because of Copyrights issues! I DON’T EVEN LISTEN TO BEYONCE!!
DISGUSTED WITH INTERNET
what people need to do is boycott Sony Music stop buying there stuff. why you would ever give them a nickel is beyond me. Companies that get to greedy and stick there hands into everything deserve to lose money.
The internet was suppose to be a cool place for people to go, now its commercialized and just another money making machine its ruined and obnoxious if I see one more ad or banner come up!!!
Why does corporate American have to stick there greedy hands into everything
I am disgusted by all of it!!!
Re: DISGUSTED WITH INTERNET
If You just want to listen to the music try WinMx 🙂
What is your favorite Youtube Channel of 2010? http://bit.ly/e1C7ly
SCINCE
CAN I GET IN NOW