Artists Singing Angry Tune Over YouTube Uploads

More than 1,000 performers and songwriters petition European President Juncker to fix the 'value gap.'
By Renee Cordes ,

More than 1,000 artists and songwriters from Gwen Stefani to Sting are urging European Union policymakers to stop upload services like Google's (GOOG) - Get Report  YouTube from exploiting their music.

"This a pivotal moment for music," says the two-page letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, complaining about the "substantial value gap" between consumers' access to music and what artists are paid.

"This situation is not just harming today's recording artists and songwriters," they write. "It threatens the survival of the next generation of creators too, and the variability and diversity of the work."

More than 1,000 artists signed the letter. They also include international pop stars such as Swedish House Mafia,  Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, Paul McCartney and Rod Stewart, along with several lesser-known names affiliated with independent labels.

As the EC gets ready to review its copyright laws, the artists want a clarification in the use of safe harbors, originally designed to shield digital providers from liability when users upload copyrighted material without permission.

"These protections were put in place two decades ago to develop nascent start-ups, but today are being misapplied to corporations that distribute and monetize our works," the letter says.

The Switzerland-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, and the Brussels-based Independent Music Companies Association, or Impala, coordinated the written campaign.

"All artists are born equal and we look to the EU to make sure that means something in a world where dominance takes on a totally new dimension," said Helen Smith, Impala's executive chair, in a statement.

YouTube denies any wrongdoing, and said that it has paid out more than $3 billion to rights holders, according to Bloomberg News.

Am EC spokesman told TheStreet that the EC confirms receiving the letter "and that we are indeed looking into how to share the value of copyrighted works online in a fairer way."

"This is part of the ongoing efforts to modernize EU copyright rules," with new proposals expected in the autumn, she added.

In early June, artists petitioned the U.S. government to amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, saying the act is outdated and needs to be rewritten. The industry complains that under the DMCA, which was passed in 1998, it is very complicated to take down unlicensed content due to the Safe Harbor provisions.

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