It's finally happened:
Video-sharing site YouTube has signed a deal with media giant
Warner Music to allow its material to be used legally. It means
interviews and videos by Warner's artists can be used in return for a
slice of advertising revenue. The agreement also covers the use of
material in homemade videos, which form a large part of YouTube's
content.
Both companies hailed it as a landmark agreement, coming days after
Universal Music said it was considering legal action over sites such as
YouTube. A royalty-tracking system has been developed by YouTube
to detect when videos on the site are using copyrighted material and
work out how much Warner is owed in advertising revenue.
I don't really have much to add 'cept: cool. It was probably
inevitable. Anyway, I figured this was germane since we've
discussed online video, particuarly YouTube, quite a bit in tHAWT over the past several months.
ntodd