Week 38 – Virtual Singers’ Night
Watch the entire show above, including the part Facebook chose to block.
Sadly Facebook chose to spoil our enjoyment 15 minutes before the end of the show because UMG made a copyright claim on the grounds one of the songs contained the melody/lyrics belonging to them.
Now I totally understand copyrights are to be protected but in the real world, songs will be covered. There are literally millions of covers posted on Facebook and YouTube every day and the vast majority are done for pleasure, rather than for monetization. Many musicians are often flattered to have their songs covered, knowing it will raise awareness of the original.
Facebook deals with these claims by simply blocking the videos, whereas YouTube has negotiated a deal with the music publishers to pay the small amount of advertising revenue generated by these covers to the copyright owners. and that is a win-win situation.
Compare Facebook’s sledgehammer approach with YouTube’s sensible and conciliatory method in the screenshots below.
How YouTube deals with copyright content claims

...compared to Facebook's Sledgehammer Approach
