Universal Music Group chief executive Doug Morris has said that YouTube and MySpace are "copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars". He added, "How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly" - suggesting that the world's biggest record company could be taking legal action against the sites. The statements came during a Merrill Lynch investors' conference speech on Tuesday, and refer to the unauthorized use of Universal's music videos.
It isn't the first time that YouTube's use of copyrighted material has raised concerns - the company has already faced legal action over a clip of the 1992 Los Angeles riots (see YouTube Sued). YouTube pledge to take down material when issued a notice, but for many that isn't enough. And with MySpace Video stepping up its game in a bid to crush YouTube, they too are coming under the spotlight. It's also possible that Universal could demand licensing fees - they're in talks with the social sites regarding a paid download model. Morris says that MTV built a "multibillion-dollar company on our (music)", and he doesn't want to make the same mistake again. Of course, MTV and online videos are both great promotional vehicles for bands - OK Go, for instance, have seen a spike in sales after their videos went viral on YouTube. It's debatable whether YouTube should be made to pay.
There has already been talk of YouTube music videos, with YouTube pledging to host "every music video ever created" back in August. They're also pursuing TV licensing deals like the NBC-YouTube hookup. A related issue that the record companies haven't yet addressed is the use of artist's images - hosted on sites like ImageShack, distributed on MySpace pages and integrated into thousands of MySpace layouts without authorization - it would be ridiculous to go after all these infringements, but we can't rule it out. In fact, all these social media sites are walking a fine line when it comes to uploading copyrighted content, and more legal action seems inevitable.