Hell hath no fury like a music-artist-who-sees-his-own-music-video-removed-from-YouTube scorned. The video sharing service may be doing its best to keep copyrighted material off its website, but London-based artist Calvin Harris, who saw the music video of his ‘Ready For The Weekend – Original Mix’ being deleted from his own account over copyright claims, is not amused. The artist has been lashing out on his Twitter account this morning, and you’re advised to turn your eyes away if you object to foul language.
Harris’ strong words are directed mostly at the BPI, ‘the representative voice of the UK recorded music business’ according to the organization’s website, who apparently filed the complaint in this case. They sure don’t seem to represent this particular artist’s voice, since he’s currently threatening to drive a hired car through the front window of their building and “hopefully reach the online monkeys at the back of the office” in between calling their employees retards and bastards and using the F-word a lot.
There’s a bigger issue here. According to the tipster who pointed us to Harris’ rant, this is just one example of apparent spats there’s a background war raging between music labels who are apparently turning on the heat by throwing DMCA notices at each other in the hope that music videos from competing record companies get removed from legitimate accounts (where they generally get the most views). (Update: as TechDirt’s Mike Masnick points out, there’s a good chance this case isn’t an example of those spats, but we’re digging to find out more about them so stay tuned).
In this case, it’s the BPI who filed the copyright claim, according to the artist on Twitter. Apparently, no warnings were given on beforehand, leaving Harris virtually powerless now that the video has effectively been removed without him being contacted.
How ironic is that, given this excerpt lifted from the BPI website:
The BPI believes that a graduated response system – whereby infringing subscribers are given an escalated notifications, warnings and deterrent measures – is a fair and proportionate way to effect a change in behaviour.
Who needs a change in behavior here?
Slightly OTT.
dance with me >)
it’s only rock and roll
Youtube sucks.. They should have given the user (in this case the legitimate artist ) a chance to explain..
I completely agree with Calvin Harris’ take on BPI.. To quote him “The BPI are the worst organisation to ever walk the earth and their setup is shambolic and their online employees are all massive retards”
Absolute stupidity to put a claim on a video they do not even own rights to…
I picked another video off his channel, and got this:
“This video is not available in your country due to copyright restrictions.
This video is unavailable.
We are unable to show you the original featured video for this channel due to age or location restrictions.”
I’m in the UK, he’s a British artist. What does he have to say about that?
As I wrote in my post back in April, “Don’t Blame YouTube,” http://bit.ly/yNw8S, it is the licensing organizations and music companies who are to blame, and the power must be put back into the hands of the artists. If we can make a video go viral, we can certainly effect a change. Maybe Calvin Harris will be the one who will rally the change?
Utter BS. Google is simply playing nice with organized media industry to help make youtube profitable. Google is a two-faced organization.
I was always under the impression that a signed artist didn’t own the rights to their music, it was the labels to do with what they like, therefore surely it is the labels right is to have it removed if they so wish.
silly though.
That may be true for most contracts, but not all.
One thing seemingly overlooked in all the ‘BPI are bastards’ rhetoric is that the copyright will probably not be owned by Calvin Harris, it will have been signed over to the record label and so it’s up to the label to decide how it can be used.
Being cynical, I have to ask: did Harris actually have the rights to post it?
The thing is that Samuel Ryan has a point – it’s possible that the copyrights to both the sound recording and the video have been assigned to the record label, who in turn are represented by the BPI and the BPI rightly requires YouTube to pay royalties on videos available (after all, their money comes from the fact people go there to watch same).
My personal hunch is that Mr. Harris is either unaware of what’s in his contract or hasn’t bothered to clear the YouTube issue with his label. Either way it’s his neglect and he should perhaps direct his cussing at his own stupidity. Alternatively, he could cool off and try to sort the matter out.
+1
I doubt that would have been acceptable in the 80s
That definitely wouldn’t be Acceptable in the 80s, I’m not Alone in thinking he is Ready for the Weekend…
I’m with you in thinking that the copyright probably belongs to the labels, and that, yes, Harris signed that over to them. However, this does show how absurd it is for artists these days.
Hopefully this guy wouldn’t be so daft as to just assume he’s not signing over all his rights, when going with a major label, but damn, should he really have to believe otherwise? These labels do the marketing, very rarely the creating. You’d hope they wouldn’t claim ownership for something they didn’t make (especially considering how quick these same organizations are to bitch about ownership, rights, etc.).
It shows as much of a problem with the system as it does with an artist not keeping up with his business.
If I were Harris I would let the contract expire and then I would sell my stuff from my website, both digital and cd’s
Even if he sells only 20% compared to now he will make more money.
Being doubly cynical, and having never heard of this artist, how do we know it’s not a ploy to get attention to some unknown?
He’s pretty popular in the UK…
YouTube (Google) has apparently violated the DMCA procedure; it’s something they routinely do all the time.
Who cares.
UK, not USA, so DMCA does not apply.
THANK YOU
I was thinking that all through the article.
…sony are us?
a lot of Americans forget that their laws don’t rule the internet.
Oh, but they do. You just don’t know it yet.
fk the US and their bullsh*t copyright laws, they dont apply to the rest of the world so those damn yank bullies can go blow.
Aren`t musicvideos meant to be commercials for albums.
So musicvideos are for MTV only or what?
I`m not that obsessed to wait for hours or even years until MTV happens to play the video I want to see.
Youtube is not in the wrong.
I agree with the commentators above that the artist probably does not own the copyright nor the rights to the music video.
The true brilliance of all of this hoopla, of course, is that Calvin is going to sell more albums.
Blah, it’s not a big deal.
This is the age of the internet for pete’s sake!
New artists should totally side step the need to go to a music label. Just promote yourself! The only real need for investors would be for if the artist needs to do a live concert somewhere. Other than that, EVERYTHING else can be done online!
Who gets these people anyway, they get mad if it’s uploaded without permission and mad if it’s removed cause they don’t get enough views.
Recording artist M.I.A. (@_M_I_A_) had a similar problem with YouTube last month when they weren’t letting her post a video of one of her songs. (In fact, watching the video, I’m not sure that it’s even the official music video of the song, but rather, a video of guys in a club dancing to it.)
Here’s the tweet in which she ranted about it: http://twitter....atus/2384208893
She eventually resorted to posting it on Vimeo instead: http://twitter....atus/2385940854
You Tube did the same thing to me. I am a film TV producer, I filmed a video which aired on FOX Sports, and I own the rights too of Vanilla Ice motocross racing at a motocross event which I also own. I used music that is licensed to me from Vanilla Ices Label, I have two waivers signed by him, one for the event to use his likeness one for the video. The video has been taken down after being up for two years! No reason was giving, i don’t know who the accuser is, what the claim or reason is, its bull shit, and i here its happening a lot. Just “cause” someone called them up and said “they have the copy rights” WHICH THEY DONT cause i produced, shot, filmed and edited and original piece. You Tube takes it down with out even asking me first. Asking me for my side of the story. Yep You Tube keep screwing pro producers and artist and all you’ll be left with is Parakeets spinning around on bar stools, and no advertisers who want to advertise in that crap.
Don’t use youtube anymore. Problem solved.
start to use vimeo, blip tv…………………maybe those mega people will loose a little power and learn to use humans not databases (for google that can be difficult)
I love Calvin Harris’ music.
Youtube sucks nowadays. =[
I wonder how long YouTube will last…
Its not really youtube, its the unruly teenager with his finger on the delete button, no doubt some kid in college doing an internship. If it is anything otherwise then YT should get its act together rather quickly
The music industry has always been made up of retards and bastards. I deal with them everyday.
I would worry that one of them might read this, but people in the music industry are about ten years behind technology and always have been. So they’ve never even heard of TechCrunch.
Hit youtube where it will hurt the most. Don’t upload videos and don’t advertise on the youtube site. That will be the only way to get youtube to wake up and change the way they operate.
is it just me or are the record labels still chasing after their own dinosaur tails?
they need to hurry up and learn how best to serve their artists and clients (ask your artists if you don’t know!), rather than hold on to archaic money-making schemes, otherwise more and more artists like calvin will deem them as unnecessary relics of the stone age.
It sounds more and more like YouTube has lost sight of the most important thing – the customer. Under the circumstances I’d recommend everyone migrate to an alternate service. But don’t leave your account active – close it. If they are like most sites now they’ll ask why you are closing your account, and use the opportunity to tell them.
Who knows, maybe they will get their act together. Maybe.
Heard a story from an actor friend of mine about a discussion he had at a poker game with an executive from Columbia Studios’s film division (which is also currently owned by Sony) that they bought the rights to an indie film with the sole intention to shelf it.
It wasn’t that the film was controversial or a competitor to some other film Columbia was already making or that they really didn’t want the public to see it, it’s just that their accounting & tax people figured out they made more (from the tax loss they could take) shelving the film than ever getting out there & doing the marketing & publicity for the film & releasing it so the public had a chance to see it and they had a chance to sell tickets and then sell it again to cable/satellite then sell it yet again to home video etc.
I don’t totally think that is going on here with YouTube pulling Calvin Harris & other recording artists’ music videos but the reality is YouTube is part owned by NewsCorp (Fox) and if the big media conglomerates wanted to play rough with each other, they decide not to do or renew licensing deals with one another & pull their company’s content from each others channels.
This is what is going on with YouTube & music. It hurts the site, it hurts the users & it hurts the artists. But it’s all very money driven (YouTube/NewsCorp/Google wants more money in license fees & other companies with content want a cheaper cost to put their content on YouTube hence the stalemate).
There are a few instances of people working at big labels supressing their own artists content, not promoting them etc where it’s personal, but it’s more likely a fight over bigger money that Calvin Harris is caught up in. I’m not supportive of these petty battles but that’s how big media rolls. I’m sad for Harris, but he’ll just have to wait it out. If he has the money he can maybe sue Sony & YouTube but that will cost a lot, maybe far more than the money at stake (although if it’s a principle thing that’s a good enough reason to sue).
Just wait, we’ll see this same sort of petty BS happen at Hulu (part owned by News Corp (FOX) NBC Universal (NBC) and now Disney (ABC). And we’ll likely see people pull out of the brand new Comcast TV Everywhere experiment for similar reasons making the range of stuff available from either business model.
These guys running these companies (into the ground) make their personal fortunes behaving in a bipolar fashion, first doing joint ventures and then renegging. Out come the lawyers & eventually a settlement happens. Yes it screws shareholders, talent, consumers & the business model but until people change how the individuals running the company get paid they’ll keep doing destructive crap like this.
If I were a new artist I’d never trust my stuff to big media, not if I wanted to get it seen and/or heard. If I’m an artist with a contract with them like Harris, I wait for the contract to expire then go do it myself & capitalize on the money they invested in me (if any) marketing & promoting me while I was under their control.
Just sayin…
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