Artist's Own YouTube Uploads Deleted To Protect Copyright
Calvin Harris tweets:
Youtube just removed MY Fake Blood and High Contrast remixes of Ready For The Weekend due to a copyright claim from Sony Music. What?! RAGE
Welcome to a world where the record companies owning copyrights to music (which they shouldn't) forcibly take down music which was put up by the artist himself.
I suppose when I think about it, artists are sub-contractors to the record companies. It's not as if they pay for the studio time, the video production etc etc. Most don't even write the songs! And as a software contractor you wouldn't expect to hold the right to distribute the entire work to which you contributed only a part.
Still though it seems wrong as the label contracts are rather harsh, and if you want the funding/publicity/airtime, you don't really have a choice but to sign one.
Disclaimer: I do not tweet. This is my first blog post referencing Twitter and I am sorry! Someone linked me to this story.
Police Try The RIAA Method
In other news, Sussex cops have tried to suppress the publication of damning traffic-cam photos by claiming copyright.
As Cory Doctorow puts it, "Copyright is meant to protect creativity; I'm not sure who the aggrieved artist is meant to be here. Is there some tortured constable who spent hours on a ladder getting the composition of the camera's shots just right?".
There's a theory that police are trying to keep quiet the fact a time-distance calculation can be performed on the images to check the vehicle's speed against the radar reading. A difference of more than ten percent between the two figures renders the machine's speed estimate "unreliable" under UK guidelines.
