Policing YouTube: ur doing it rite

Less than a month ago, one of the videos I had hosted on YouTube fell victim to the Scorpio Music group, who were eager to protect their intellectual property, and removed it from the interwebs, never to be seen again! (Until I uploaded it to MegaVideo, at least).

That same e-mail from YouTube advised that the rest of my videos that infringed on some copyright (which consists of any of the decent ones) were also at risk. Imagine that sinking feeling when I saw the subject heading of this e-mail:

I glumly opened the message, expecting the worst, and what I read actually made me quite happy!

Your video is still live because UMG has authorised the use of this content on YouTube. As long as UMG has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video's page.

That's more like it! Rather than scrubbing any trace of the video from this fine series of inter-connected tubes, UMG are happy to let it live on, so long as they can avail of a little more web real-estate. I've checked on it a few times, and my video is quite happy to share a page with Toyota commercials! I find it even brightens up the place a little!

If UMG are happy to do this, why aren't Scorpio Music? I'd have thought that the people who own the rights to The Village People's back catalogue would be less uptight than those who own Blink 182's... Just goes to show you, I guess.

From now on - I refuse to dance gaily to YMCA in overpriced, poorly ventilated nightclubs - my friends will have to find another tall person to fill in as the 'Y'.