Blog do André

É uma triste realidade que chegou a acontecer. Alguns vídeos do Youtube (no meu caso, videoclips de músicas) são bloqueados sob condição geográfica do utilizador. Ao que consegui entender, alguns contratos que o Youtube mantinha com grandes editoras da industria musical expiraram e agora é difícil renová-los devido ao aumento do preço por parte das editoras.

Com o que nos podemos contentar é com uma nova suposta característica que nos permite comprar downloads para determinadas músicas no Youtube (que ainda não tive oportunidade de a ver em lado nenhum). Ainda segundo o blog, parece ser uma fase passageira, visto que as negociações continuam.

Não era de espantar que isto acontecesse. Afinal, eu quando queria ouvir uma música, ia ao Youtube e ouvia, quando bem quisesse. E aposto que não era o único. Como o pessoal não gosta de cantar sem receber nada em troca, querem a todo o custo cortar nestas coisas (o que até compreendo de certa forma, é o ganha pão deles). Deixo aqui uns excertos da notícia anunciada no blog:

We have invested a lot of time and effort trying to ensure that our community can find and enjoy the music they love, and we have strong partnerships with three of the four largest record labels in the world, as well as many independent labels. But copyrights in music can get pretty complicated. For example, there may be several different copyrights in a single music video, controlled by different organizations with different interests. The visual elements and the sound recording of a music video are typically owned by a record label, while the music and lyrics of the song being performed are owned separately by one or more music publishers. These publishers often designate organizations called collecting societies to issue licenses and collect royalties on their behalf. (…)

Our previous license from PRS for Music has expired, and we’ve been unable so far to come to an agreement to renew it on terms that are economically sustainable for us. There are two obstacles in these negotiations: prohibitive licensing fees and lack of transparency. (…)

The costs are simply prohibitive for us — under PRS’s proposed terms we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback. In addition, PRS is unwilling to tell us what songs are included in the license they can provide so that we can identify those works on YouTube — that’s like asking a consumer to buy an unmarked CD without knowing what musicians are on it.

We’re still working with PRS for Music in an effort to reach mutually acceptable terms for a new license, but until we do so we will be blocking premium music videos in the UK that have been supplied or claimed by record labels. This was a painful decision, and we know the significant disappointment it will cause within the UK. (…)

Notícia completa: YouTube, the UK and the Performing Rights Society for Music