Lo, for I have discovered the joy that is
YouTube. And, apparently, a contested use of it. I’ve been looking up music videos, you see. Not current ones, most of the time, but I do tend to run a bit of a gamut in my interests. It started by wondering what the video for Rob Thomas’
Ever the Same was like (gorgeous), and it pretty much cascaded from there. Could I find a video for Dire Straight’s
Walk of Life (I could), does Jason Mraz’s
Wordplay have a video (it does), what about
Forever December by Tabitha’s Secret (not that I could find)?
I even got a YouTube account, just to keep track of my favourites. Which is how I discovered that these videos are a contested use. I would go back to my list a little while later and discover [video unavailable] beside some of them.
For the most part, I try to stay out of things like this. I’ve been through that phase, and I’m done. So, it’s sort of interesting for me to be looking at it and wondering again.
I understand copyright claims, hard not to, given what I do. It also understand the fan desire for accessibility, hard not to given I am one. I’m not certain I understand the sense of entitlement involved with posting them, but I look at my favourites list and I can’t say I’m not taking advantage of it.
When music downloading was really big (is it still, I’m a little out of the loop) I wished for a way to make it legal. I got one. When I’m looking for music, it’s usually one or two songs, so I hit up
PureTracks. Cheap download cost, legal versions, oh music industry how much money you’ve gotten out of me from that stroke of genius.
Looking at YouTube, though, I’m not sure the same thing would work. The joy of that site is in the sharing. Unless companies want to start selling cheap limited distribution rights, I think this particular fight’s going to go on for a while longer.
