If you didn’t know that Swizz Beatz was the leader behind Megaupload well now you do, but don’t feel bad this news comes new to the majority of the public. The surprise announcement comes with much scrutiny, as Swizz is now under-fire from Universal Music Group. The 3 million dollar Megaupload video commercial has been taken down from YouTube by Universal, as Universal is saying the appearance and services from such artists as Kanye, Diddy, and Will.i.am were unauthorized.
The problem Universal has with the video and the site is that they believe it is promoting infringement as the site has as many as 50 million users daily. YouTube, which is owned by Google has a Content Management System that allows users to remove videos, Universal used this system to take down the video. YouTube re-instated the video on the grounds that Universal did not have the authority to take down the video unless they own the rights to the video or own the rights to live performances by the artist. YouTube went on to say that Universal abused the system by taking down the video.
Megaupload has issued a counter lawsuit against Universal to stop them from interfering with the distribution of the video. A Megaupload rep told the NY Post “We have never received any word that any artist has [individually] filed a take-down . . . [we have] legally binding agreements with the performers that appear in the video . . . They promised that they had the rights to enter into that agreement and it’s not interfering with any third-party rights.”
-John McAuliffe (@John_Mac310)
