MBW: Facebook Next To Fall Under Copyright Scrutiny By Music Publishers

Facebook: Under Siege

After the recent settlement between the NATIONAL MUSIC PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION and YOUTUBE over uncollected royalties (NEW NEWS 12/8), the industry has turned its attention to FACEBOOK for copyright infringement violations.

According to an article in the LONDON-based MUSIC BUSINESS WORLDWIDE, music publishers are now eyeing FACEBOOK for its increasingly popular artists doing cover material on the social media site.  And while industry gadflies like DAVID LOWERY have applauded the actions of UMG's anti-piracy chief DAVID BENJAMIN, who has been issuing copyright violation notices to FACEBOOK, others are wondering about the effect on artistic expression, or whether they'll just migrate to YOUTUBE.

One U.K. artist, singer/songwriter SAMANTHA HARVEY, who has 1.97 million likes through her popular covers, has seen a number of her songs taken down by FACEBOOK "on the instruction of the publishing companies." HARVEY was even temporarily blocked from accessing her page by FACEBOOK – and warned that if she continued to post her songs, they would be deleted.

With all of SAMANTHA's friends and followers migrating to YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK's MARK ZUCKERBERG is apparently not taking this threat lying down, or poking fun at NICKELBACK for that matter.  According to the story, FACEBOOK is current on the search for music-related product manager and a global head of music licensing. 

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