Songs by multiple artists including Adele, Nirvana, Bob Dylan and Green Day have been blocked on YouTube following a legal dispute between the video-sharing website and performance rights group SESAC.
Instead of playing music videos for several songs by each artist, YouTube visitors are greeted with the message “This video contains content from SESAC, which is not available in your country.”
A spokesperson for YouTube told The Hollywood Reporter: “We have been negotiating in good faith with SESAC to renew our existing agreement. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we are unable to renew our existing agreement before it expires. Because we take copyright very seriously, we are proactively working with SESAC to ensure that content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the United States. We are in discussions and hope to reach a new agreement as soon as possible.”
X account TeamYouTube responded to customer complaints throughout Saturday. In one message, they said that their music licensing agreement with SESAC was expiring “despite our best efforts, without any agreement on renewal terms” and that as a result “U.S. “We have blocked YouTube content from.” It is related to copyright law. ”
They later added, “We understand this is a difficult situation and our team continues to work hard to reach a renewal agreement.”
In the United States, SESAC is responsible for collecting rights and helping songwriters and publishers protect their copyrights. The organization has not commented on its dispute with YouTube. According to the organization’s website, its repertoire currently spans over 100 genres, including “Top 40, pop, hip-hop, R&B, rock, country, Spanish (pop, regional Mexican, tropical, rhythmic), blues, and jazz.” It is said to consist of 10,000 songs. , big band, folk, contemporary Christian, gospel, and many more. ”
The news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
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