14 DAY TRIAL // The Megaupload versus Universal Music Group 'drama' keeps on getting weirder. It started with a star-studded video and song, created by Megaupload, to promote its service. It featured some big names like Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, will.i.am and so on.
The song had a strange vibe about it, but it was somewhat catchy, in the same way Rebecca Black's Friday was catchy.
The Mega Song mega drama
But the video turned out to be the least strange thing about the whole deal. Soon after it was published, it was taken down from YouTube, and other video sites, due to a copyright claim by Universal. Or so it seemed at the time.
Megaupload claimed that it owned the copyright to the video and the song, quite obvious since it shot the scenes itself and paid beatsmith Prinz Board for the song.
But Universal was unrelenting, leading Megaupload to sue the record label earlier this week, claiming abuse of the DMCA and asking for an injunction prohibiting Universal from taking down the video.
Most people didn't really know what to make out of all of this. If MegaUpload's claims were true, and they seemed legitimate if only because all of the artists are talking about MegaUpload in the video, Universal was clearly abusing the DMCA takedown process.
This became especially obvious, when a Tech News Today episode was taken down for using a few segments of the video. Adding to the confusion, early reports indicated that will.i.am also issued a takedown notice to YouTube.
But, since the video had been shot by MegaUpload, there was no copyright infringement to speak of, you can't copyright words, the copyright is for the medium they're fixed on, in this case the video. Later, MegaUpload's Kim Dotcom, said that will.i.am personally assured him that he didn't authorize a takedown.
Universal has a deal with YouTube through which it can take down any video on the site
So why would Universal so clearly abuse the DMCA and get everyone on MegaUpload's side? Record labels have been digging their own graves for a decade now, but even for them, this seemed excessive.
Well, a court filing has surfaced shedding some light, but arising more questions than it answered.
Apparently, Universal has a business deal (or at least it thinks it has) with Google/YouTube through which it can ask the video site to take down any video it wants, at will, copyright infringement or not.
Therefore, Universal claims in court, there is no DMCA abuse to speak of, since the record label didn't use a DMCA takedown.
That's a bit disingenuous since, the users that had uploaded the video received a DMCA takedown notice from YouTube; however, that may simply be a limitation of the system.
“The UMG-YouTube agreement grants UMG rights to effect the removal of user-posted videos through YouTube’s Content Management System (‘CMS’), based on a number of contractually specified criteria that are not limited to the infringements of copyrights owned or controlled by UMG,” Universal said in a court filling.
As a side note, the video has since been reinstated and is once again available on YouTube. But if Universal really does have a deal with YouTube through which it gets to say which videos can stay on the site and which can't, Julius Caesar at the Coliseum style, no one is safe. More will surface as this case drags on.
