Thoughts On YouTube, The Beatles & Copyrights?

12 June 2007 Written By: Jim KukralComments: Comments

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I made a discovery this morning. You can listen/watch a lot of copyrighted music on YouTube. I never realized this.

Check it out, I just spent the last hour or so browsing videos from copyrighted video/songs from The Beatles. (Doesn’t Wacko Jacko own this stuff?)

Love Me Do

Can’t Buy My Love – From movie “A Hard Day’s Night”

Personal favorite – I Am The Walrus

Check out the profile for one of the biggest Beatles uploader named “Beatlz”. Is this legal?

My second thought from my discovery today. How come you’re not allowed to download an MP3 of a Beatles song for your iPod, but it’s ok to watch/listen to them freely on Youtube?

Is this the kind of violation that the newly touted copyright screening tool will solve? More at the WSJ.

Lastly, why doesn’t someone just invent a music browser from YouTube videos?

Goo goo ga jube.

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  • The answer, simply put, is that this isn't legal and yes it is the type of problem that the new fingerprinting service is designed stop.

    However, the copyright of the Beatles is a pretty interesting case as the rights holders have been very slow to enter into the online market. It seems likely that they haven't submitted their content to be fingerprinted nor expressed a great deal of interest in shutting down infringements.

    It'll be interesting to see if these videos go away any time soon.
  • Yeah, so what will be left on YouTube once they crack down?
  • It may not be technically legal, but the sound quality is so bad (it's mixed down to mono with low fidelity) that I dont think it would ever take the place of a proper recording for anyone who really likes the music. So I think that's part of it... Plus if you think about it - it's sort of like a video that MTV would play right? It's and advertisement. I think it probably leads to more sales for the Beatles in the end.

    Music Blog's last blog post..John Lennon’s Real Love & Joy Division’s Isolation: An Essay
  • Leigh Cole
    Heres a question. Can you post any of these Beatles vids on myspace without losing your site?
  • I have no idea. Go on Youtube and read the TOS.
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