As much as I love Google products (Gmail, Google photos, etc), I hate the company. They are truly on a mission to destroy every creative content provider’s means of making a living. They used to just turn a blind eye (which was bad enough). Now they will actively support theft. http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2015/11/22/google-declares-war-on-dmca-intimidation-official-statement/
That’s not how I read the article. There are provisions under copyright law for fair use, and they’re saying that they will now support ‘fair use’… while continuing to not support ‘unfair use’. It’s not theft if a Youtuber is doing something that’s allowed under copyright law, and Google would be pretty stupid to pay for a bunch of court cases that they’re likely to lose.
That’s the way I see it anyway.
The problem is they have shown a clear pattern of not pursuing or shutting down illegal sites. And why? Because they would lose a huge portion of their ad revenue. If they had proven to support the protection of content providers, I could agree. But they have done the exact opposite - which is insane since over half their traffic is music related. So the fact that the only proactive step they are taking is to help videos that fall into a gray area of copyright law avoid being taken down tells me they are one again only concerned about losing ad revenue.
And yes, they aren’t stupid. But they also have endless resources to suppress anyone challenging them. They hide behind the mantra that the Internet should be free and unencumbered for everyone - as long as they are controlling it and making all the money.
You raise a valid point, and a perspective that I hadn’t considered. I was looking at it from the perspective of protecting the little guys from the big guys, when using content under fair use. So for example… some guy who does piano lesson videos, playing an excerpt of a popular song for the purpose of training and discussion on music structure… and Google protecting them from Sony Music issuing a DMCA.
I hadn’t looked at from the other side of the coin. Hopefully their intention is to do what I was thinking, and not what you were thinking. Only time will tell!
i wish i could be optimistic like you, but i’ve already witnessed them destroying the traditional music biz for the last decade…so i’m not too hopeful.