8 replies to this topic

[Nvyseal]

images/news/google.jpgFresh off a court victory against Google's YouTube, ASCAP tells us it is setting its sights on users of the video-sharing site. Welcome to the exciting world of copyright licensing, blogger; you may already owe gobs of money!

ASCAP licenses the performance rights for music, collecting royalties for its songwriter members when their songs are played in certain contexts.

Those contexts now include a YouTube video embedded on your blog or website, assuming your site is not "purely" non-commercial and is deemed large enough by ASCAP. The group just sent a collection letter to internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis for YouTube videos embedded on his Mahalo reference site. Based on what the group told Valleywag, other startups should be worried:

Quote

ASCAP does not offer licenses to – or require licenses from – those who simply make their personal blogs available on purely noncommercial Web sites. Mahalo.com is a larger venture than simply a personal blog, and therefore ASCAP is engaged in discussions with Mr. Calacanis concerning the use of ASCAP members' music on the site.

Gawker

[m.oreilly]

oh gawd. "a$$caps indeed. is this like texas tee shirts?

[m.oreilly]

i think we should embed as much as we can 'til the man comes for us

(we'll do it in heavey's blog... )

[Nvyseal]

Lets not. Our site isn't the biggest, but it is in the top 250,000 sites in the world (225,149 to be exact) and we dont even host porn

[m.oreilly]

spoil sport...

[hog]

WTH Dave, I never would've thought! I think it's very impressive! And yes, especially without porn...

[m.oreilly]

so you didn't see dave's sex tape? it's making the rounds...rik said he had a b-ray copy...

[brewin]

Fun x64bit fact:
One of the top Google searches to get to x64bit is "lara croft naked." (Seriously, it's the 81st most popular search term.)

So, perhaps if we had a bit more animated pr0n we might break that 200,000 barrier? Just throwing that idea out there...

[scaramonga]

m.oreilly, on Jul 9 2009, 06:38 AM, said:

so you didn't see dave's sex tape? it's making the rounds...rik said he had a b-ray copy...

I'm encoding it as we speak to .avi, I'm calling it the 'Purple Edition'.