Posted by Maleesha Silva.
Katy Perry, Billy Joel, and Rod Stewart etc. have asked the United States government to “amend parts of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act” (Shaw). Some have filed a brief stating what they see is wrong with the law. Parts of the law allow people that use YouTube to upload music without permission from the artist. According to Bloomberg.com, “Revenue from such services increased 29 percent last year” (Shaw). The artists feel that their music is essentially being stolen due to the fact that they do not receive money, however, instead the websites receive the revenue through advertising.
According to the artists, because YouTube allows users to upload music without permission from the artist, the artist loses money. This is due to the fact that because the music on YouTube is available for free, there is no purchase that needs to be made. Similarly, BloombergTechnology reports in the TV industry there was an attempt to create a law “intended to curtail online copyright infringement” (Shaw). However, this attempt ultimately ended up failing, and no law on the issue was passed.
Maleesha is an accounting major at the Feliciano School of Business, Montclair State University, Class of 2019.