Yankovic V. Sony Music

[weirdojace]

If you've noticed, any time a Weird Al song (or any song) is used in a YouTube video, there's an iTunes/Amazon link to it directly under the video. If you can see that, it means YouTube is paying the record label royalties from that. You don't have to worry about your videos using a Weird Al song.

Obviously part of the problem is that Sony isn't giving Al his cut from some of that stuff (and of course, his cut from the ad revenue from people viewing actual Weird Al videos).

[amzo39]

Yeah, if you get a copyright notice from YouTube they let you know they're gonna use ads on your video.

[Elvis]

So, if I watch W&N on Youtube, Al's (supposed to) get paid for it? I'd gladly write some script to play the video over and over and over and over again.

I think Jack, Mikel, TMBJon, and others, should sue for their fair share.

Dave

[weirdojace]

YouTube does a bit of a safeguard in place for that. If you refresh a video more than a certain amount of times, it stops counting toward the viewcount.

[amzo39]

Oh man. It used to totally be a thing back in 2008.

[stupidsurgeon27]

I am not surprisrd over the mp3 sales for the suit. Especially since it seems like something sony would "forget" to pay. Though, I had no idea sony owned part of youtube.

[weirdojace]

They don't. YouTube pays Sony (and all the other record labels) a chunk of ad revenue on videos they own, and videos that use songs owned by them.

Google owns YouTube.

[shoedogg]

Ow wow...i just read the article on Billboard.com that was posted yesterday and assumed it had to be an April Fools joke, then i read this thread and wondered "how come no one thinks this is an April fools joke". Then I saw the original link to start the thread was dated March 30...guess this IS the real deal.

[Teh Dingo]

Not gonna lie, I feel uncomfortable with this.

Don't get me wrong, I'm in full support of Al and I'm always thrilled to see anything that furthers public knowledge of the RIAA and the major labels practices

But I really wish he wouldn't call attention to himself like this while his career's still going. It just sounds bad

There are a lot of stupid people out there. It still isn't common knowledge on how bad the practices of the music industry are, and are going to see this as millionaire whining about not being a billionaire. Combine this with the fact that there are people who still don't realize Al goes through legal channels to get to where he is and will think he's just trying to profit on things he stole.

I don't know. I'd feel a lot better if this just gets resolved quickly and is just a blip on the radar.

[anthontherun]

I don't know. I'd feel a lot better if this just gets resolved quickly and is just a blip on the radar.

Most definitely. From both a PR standpoint and an effectiveness standpoint, I think Al would have been better off if he and several other Sony artists teamed up to first make the public aware of the situation to gain support, and then take action if there wasn't some sort of settlement reached. On a similar note, the big question mark that hasn't really been brought up yet...it's probably not far off to guess that about 90% (if not more) of Al's YouTube views and iTunes sales are for his parodies. I realize that Al's suit is in regards to his unpaid royalties, so I'm sure he took all this into account with the calculations...but how are the original songwriters' royalties figured into this?