“Yes, the Romanian dance song performance is hilarious … and yes, the armies of tape recording music fans now have space for bootleg videos of concerts and festivals,” said Michael R. Graham, partner with Marshall Gerstein & Borun LLP. “But every performance of a copyrighted work which appears does infringe copyright in the music, lyrics and musical performances.”
Napster. The brand name stirs memories of a Digital Rights Management (DRM) frenzy that had copyright holders up in arms over the once-illegal file-sharing service.
Of course, Napster has cleaned up its act and Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) Latest News about Apple iTunes Music Store has helped transition digital music downloaders to the right side of the law, but DRM issues are still making headlines in the next digital frontier: downloadable video.
The latest chapter in the DRM saga centers on YouTube.com, a consumer media company that lets people watch and share original videos on the Web. Launched in February 2005, YouTube boasts more than 70 million videos downloaded every day and 60,000 new videos added daily. It is the 17th most trafficked Web site in the world. It is also the Recording Industry Association of America’s Latest News about Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) latest target.
