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YouTube Muting Videos Containing Copyrighted Music

by Tim Stevens on January 15, 2009 at 10:46 AM

Over the past few years we've covered the various copyright trials and tribulations of Google-owned video superpower YouTube as it struggles to survive in a word full of legislation. We're sad to say the company has seemingly caved to pressure from the recording industry, enacting a rather harsh fix to the problem of users adding copyrighted tunes to the background of their videos: tThe site is simply pressing the mute button.

Videos featuring copyrighted tunes playing in the background have had their sound removed (like the one embedded above), and a disclaimer added stating:
This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by all copyright holders. The audio has been disabled.
It's unknown just how many of the site's millions of videos are affected. Interestingly, one of the most famous videos using a copyrighted tune, the 'Dancing Baby' submission that spurred a lawsuit back in the 'Ally McBeal'-era of the late '90s, hasn't had its soundtrack yanked -- at least not yet. So, if you're a contributor to the site, and not just a video viewer, you'd better go take a look to see whether your submissions are now on the wrong end of the volume dial. [From: Mashable]

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Tags: copyright, legislation, mute, online video, OnlineVideo, riaa, video, youtube

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