Re: takedowns
On the classical works thing: you, as an artist, can create new arrangements of old music and then claim copyrights for that arrangement. In some cases, this is required as the original instruments aren't in common use anymore, other times it's to make the piece easier to play or require fewer players, and sometimes you just want the nightcore remix of pachabel's canon and dammit you spent hours getting the tones right. *ahem*
So if what was played isn't Bach, but (say) a Guitar arrangement of one of Bach's pieces by a still-living musician, then there is a valid claim against it. A few 'ifs' there, admittedly, but it is possible to get a legitimate claim against a performance of apparently ancient music.
IMO, the problem with this law stems from there being two well-known issues with copyright (especially on youtube).
a) there is a staggering, staggering amount of straight up content lifting going on. The worst, IMO, is the stuff just reuploading other youtube channel's content, but yeah, people put whole films, whole series, whole albums (etc) up without permission, all the time.
b) the major copyright holders do not do adequate due diligence around fair use, and routinely make claims against content that is legally permissible (including "not even theirs" as well as "fair use").
This law addresses point A, or at least is trying to, while leaving point B untouched. Youtube has a severe problem with IP violations and it's attempts to deal with it are patchy and seemingly designed to cause problem b) to become more prominent. I mean, I *know* Nintendo has had a very bad habit of not conceding fair use claims, period. I've not exactly built up an opinion of xANEwGeorgeMichaelRipEveryDayx or whoever's actually using youtube for piracy, because they generally don't have a persistent 'corporate' identity and they're not causing me any issues.
This results in a massive PR problem for the rights-holders, and for whatever reason they've decided that the PR damage is minor enough they can ignore it, compared to the damage they believe piracy is doing.
...which bring us to where we are now, with that PR damage is fuelling all this.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
