You probably noticed it. I know I did.
Last week, Warner Music Group and Google failed to reach an agreement regarding royalties for music used in videos on YouTube, a site owned by Google.
The result: WMG had thousands of user-created videos either muted or removed altogether from YouTube.
One could assume that WMG's decision was the act of a company anxious to protect its product and pocket some cash in this tentative economy. Last I checked though, WMG's 2008 annual revenue amounted to $3.5 billion. Sounds so pitiful. Perhaps we could hold a bake sale for them.
I perused YouTube after the mass video removal and found several other videos saying some not-so-nice things about WMG. The Web embraces and encourages open-source thinking, not only for software but for other forms of media.
Open-source keeps content available for use and modification as long as the original creator is referenced or credited. YouTube has parameters to credit artists. For instance, the site has established Video ID technology, which helps copyright-holders recognize infringing video and make choices as to whether the videos are blocked, promoted or even monetized.
With such a method in place, it appears that YouTube was leaning toward the adoption of site regulations that would be more appealing to big media corporations. But WMG has taken their ball and gone home. Instead, the company should look into the costs of this move beyond the simple dollars and cents. WMG has sacrificed massive amounts of free promotion.
My real beef with WMG, though, is that they are restricting creativity. Our generation is a generation that shares thoughts, exchanges stories and inspires ideas.
We wouldn't be the nation we are today if we didn't learn from previous nations, apply laws from other cultures to our own and pass those on to future generations. What if the Greeks copyrighted the idea of democracy? What if they were somehow able to stop other nations from implementing a similar form of government unless royalties were paid?
I am saying that copyrights and artists' rights should be negated so that we can create at whim. Art still needs to be bought by a consumer, but the use of purchased music and images for non-commercial expression should not be outlawed.
Artists should be happy to allow the use of their creation, not only for educational purposes and the chance to be the inspiration for a new artist's work, but for the pure sake of self-expression.
WMG has repressed our generation's expression to make another dollar. No doubt their actions will successfully turn off customers and effectively turn artists into criminals.
Corporations like WMG should know it is in the interests of both their companies and their customers that self expression of this generation, our generation, should be embraced and encouraged.
Michelle A. Hipps is a telecommunications senior. Her column appears weekly.
