Music royalty collection agencies are known for going to extremes to claim money on behalf of artists and music composers.
They target schools and kids’ community centers, charge charities for the singing of Christmas carols without a license, and even crash weddings if they have to.
YouTube videos.
Every week hundreds of thousands of people embed YouTube videos of their favorite artists on websites, but they’re not paying for these broadcasts. Royalty collection agencies would like to see this changed.
In 2008 already there was a heated debate in The Netherlands where the local royalty collection agency announced plans to charge website owners for embedding music videos from YouTube. After massive protests from the public the plan was cancelled, and the royalty agency closed a private deal with YouTube directly.
More recently the Slovak royalty collectors SOZA tried something similar. But instead of announcing the plans they simply started sending fines and invoices to bloggers.
Everything started on 18th May that SOZA when a local blogger posted that SOZA tried to fine him for embedding YouTube videos on his blog. They further asked for 16.60 euro a month for alicence to publish YouTube videos on his blog.
This has sparked a revolt among Internet users. A storm of negative comments, blog posts and parodies followed, and eventually it also got the attention of mainstream media.
And not without result.
Because of this blogger and media outcry has been that SOZA issued an apology and acknowledged that they have made mistake and acted wrongfully and unlawfully. They returned all the money collected from the bloggers who are again free to embed YouTube videos.
(Thanks to Andrej Chudy for his contribution to this article)
Source: YouTube Embed Royalty Results In Public Outrage
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