Copyright Infringement & Music Videos

In recent years, hundreds of Internet users have been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America, also known as the RIAA. The charges: copyright infringement. With widespread availability of high speed internet, it has become more and more handy for people to just download their favorite music, music video or movies or simply create their own internet radio playlists. Over the years, this trend has become such a common practice that the filmmaking and music industries eventually noticed drastic decline in their sales. This observation compelled the RIAA to sue Internet users who had been identified downloading copyrighted materials.

RIAA Lawsuits

When the counter measures against these downloaders did not deliver the desired results, the RIAA adjusted their techniques a bit. Instead of going after the downloaders, the RIA is now after folks that share more than a thousand files in a certain timeframe. Internet Service Providers have been put on notice that they need to control their subscribers; it almost seems that the RIAA is trying to place the burden of ensuring the copyright law is respected by Internet users on the backs of the user’s respective ISPs. In a way it makes sense: you share illegal files, you lose your Internet connection, you abruptly have no means of uploading files for illegal distribution.

YouTube Copyright issues

The same ideas apply to YouTube, the third most popular website on the Internet (as per Alexa ranking). YouTube dealt with numerous controversies even before it became the number one video sharing site. First, its name was controversial: another website that sounded like YouTube filed a lawsuit when their site became overloaded with traffic from users searching for YouTube. In the following years, several companies sued them for allegedly failing to promote adiquate copyright protections by permitting its users upload copyrighted materials, accusations for which YouTube is most likely responsible. What’s interesting about this is that anyone with an internet connection can enjoy Free Online Music without paying subscription or other fees.

YouTube’s View

YouTube’s primary defense is its terms of service, which prompt users not to upload any materials that is owned by someone else without the permission of the latter. Because YouTube doesn’t have the regulation and the ability to filter the videos uploaded by its users, many unauthorized clips of copyrighted materials are being shared every day.

YouTube states on its web page that the burden of ensuring copyright protection is left up to copyright holders. There is a (DMCA) form and instructions on the same page that allow copyright holders to notify YouTube of copyright infringement.

YouTube’s latest approach to enforcing copyright protection is aimedat video clips that contain copyrighted audio as a soundtrack. They have devised a sound-scanning system that queries soundtracks for copyrighted music during processing. Then, based on which recording company holds the copyright, YouTube either prevents the sound from playing or plays ads to enable YouTube to pay royalty fees to the copyright holder.

The verdict: music and other copyrighted material on YouTube is not going away; YouTube has shown aptitude for solving any issues that pop up before, and there’s little doubt that they’ll find a way to work with recording companies and other copyright holders to be able to continue exhibiting the content that everyone wants to see.

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Jack Black Back to host the Kids’ Choice Awards

Jack Black has been invited back again to host the 24th Kids’ Choice Awards. This will be the third time the comedian has hosted the Kids’ Choice Awards, after previously hosting the show in both 2006 and 2008.

The Executive Producer, Majorie Cohn, is happy to have the comedian back for a third show. “Jack Black is the perfect mix of comedy, rock and star-power that will set the tone for an amazing show.”, said Cohn. “Jack is always an exciting host because of his unpredictability, incredible comedic timing and ability to connect with our audience. We’re really excited to have him back.”

Nickelodeon talent head Paula Kaplan also had pretty much the same idea about Black as Cohn. “It’s not like hosting the Oscars where you’re performing for a bunch of adults who’ll laugh and pretend they like it because that’s the polite thing to do. Kids wear their emotions on their sleeves, and if they don’t like it, they’ll tell you. So some adults are fearful of that honesty. Jack is up for anything,” Cohn explained.

Jack Black, whose worked on a variety of children’s’ projects including ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, ‘Yo Gabba Gabba’ and ‘iCarly’, told Entertainment Weekly, “Anyone can host something once. But if they ask you back a second time that means they liked the way you did it. And if you host a third time that means the first time wasn’t a fluke, and it means you did good two times. So the third time, well - that’s the real achievement.”

The comedian who will have to fend off competition from names such as Dwayne Johnson, Johnny Depp and Jaden Smith, to take the Favorite Movie Actor award home, is fully confident that he will pay back the trust shown in him by the organizers. “You wanna top the last one. I’ve had some pretty dynamic opening numbers. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but ‘I Was Made for Sliming You, Baby’? That was one for the ages,” Black said in his typical humorous style.

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