So apparently the safe harbor of a MCN isn’t quite the guarantee that it used to be …
Fullscreen has agreed to scrub videos containing unlicensed music from its channels after some legal wrangling by the national Music Publishers’ Association. Licensed music — that is, stuff that falls under the scope of major record labels — will be protected by YouTube’s agreement with the record labels, but anything that falls outside of that comes down to the whims of the songwriters. They can choose to be compensated and agree to terms with Fullscreen or they can opt out and have the offending videos removed.
There’s no clear number as to how many videos this is going to disrupt — because of the minor scope of unlicensed music, it probably won’t be too many videos deleted, but still, after the contentious issues between YouTube and gamers, this is another hard pill for creators to swallow.
“As the digital marketplace continues to evolve, music publishing rights must be recognized and built into future business models, and we applaud Fullscreen for working with us to recognize the contribution of songwriters,” NMPA president and CEO David Israelite said.
Here are some other copyright issues YouTube has dealt with lately:
YouTube Creator Zack James Declares That Being a Full-Time YouTuber Will Be ‘Death of Your Career’
WhoLetsPlay is the New Wiki Page Supporting Gamers In The YouTube Copyright Battle
Scheming YouTube Finally Responds To Gamers Over Copyright Woes
[…] can’t imagine that he could be unhappy at Fullscreen — after all, they just reached a settlement with the NMPA so that their creators can use NMPA music, they’ve created a special dashboard to help their […]
[…] FULLSCREEN TO DELETE UNLICENSED MUSIC VIDEOS FROM ITS CREATORS’ CHANNELS AFTER LEGAL SETTLEMENT […]
[…] Fullscreen To Delete Unlicensed Music Videos From Its Creators’ Channels After Legal Settlement […]
Hey Jeff… I’m afraid this article is very misleading. We are actually the only YouTube network to have reached a final settlement with the NMPA. We fought hard for a new system where emerging musicians can safely cover their favorite songs while simultaneously compensating the original songwriters. This is a win for YouTube musicians AND songwriters. Your article makes it seem like videos are going to be deleted. That is not the case. I’m a huge NMR fan, but articles/headlines like this send the wrong message to creators out there. Feel free to email me if you’d like to discuss further.