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Let the Copyright Wars Begin . . . Again: On YouTube, TikTok, and the Next Fight for Media Rights
The music world has been abuzz with conversation about the 2024 Grammy Awards for the past two days. However, the recent legal battle between TikTok and Universal Music Group (UMG) has been the main concern for many people, including me.
Due to copyright claims, some of our favorite artists have been disappearing from TikTok videos and content. During negotiations between TikTok and UMG, the companies disagreed on the media conglomerate’s music catalog rights. As a result, the music rights were revoked, causing some of the most famous artists’ music, such as Drake and Taylor Swift, to disappear from the app.
Copyright issues leading to the removal of videos are not a new problem on TikTok. Many users, including me, have had their videos dinged for copyright claims in recent years. But, instead of removing the content, these videos are stripped of their sound, becoming silent movie stand-ins for the original video. But, once again, this phenomenon has been around for a while.
