Fans of Rachel Maddow know that she’s a fan of quirky web video. Tonight she wrapped up her show with a segment on the lip-sync video battle between two high schools in Washington.
Hopefully the record labels will let these kids have their fun. On Dec. 5th, Ryan Lawler at NewTeeVee reported:
A few years ago, video-sharing site Vimeo hit the big time with a viral video of its employees lip-syncing along to Harvey Danger’s Flagpole Sitta after work one day. Now Vimeo and parent corp IAC are coming under legal attack for promoting the creation and distribution of these so-called lip dub videos in the form of a suit filed by Capital Records, which is seeking retribution for what it alleges is copyright infringement.
The complaint states that Vimeo “induces and encourages its users to upload…audiovisual works,” which it then disseminates virally throughout the Internet. According to Capitol Records, the company’s staff actively participates in “making, selecting, commenting on, and at times choosing to delete” audiovisual works, including those featuring its own copyrighted recordings.
Universal lost a similar law suit against Veoh earlier in the year. Veoh’s defense? The DMCA itself, citing “Safe Harbor,” which allows sites the opportunity to remove copyrighted material.
Could the publicity force the record label to be a Scrooge? Or is someone going to give these kids a licensing agreement for an early Christmas present? Both videos have credits at the end, and neither mentions the song, writer, performer, permissions…..or even if they rocked! Which, by the way, could have been good enough for a record label in the Christmas spirit. C’mon Mr. Mitchells and Mr. Ballew. You’re teaching your kids about copyrights, too, right?
Monica Corton, Vice President, Creative Affairs and Licensing at Next Decade Entertainment, Inc. told OVW, “Personally, I would prefer that the students went to the rights holders and asked for a gratis permission so that proper credits would be given to the songwriter(s) and master owner/artist. I think it would also help students understand that these songs/masters are owned by others and they are not free to be taken without receiving proper permission, even if that permission was for free.”
Bingo. Now enjoy the videos anyway.