Infinite Path

YouTube, the most popular online video website in the world, and Performing Right Society (PRS) have brought an end to their dispute over thousands of music videos posted on the site owned by parent company, Google.

These music videos will be re-posted after a new licensing deal between YouTube and PRS for Music allowed the website to lift a block which had forced millions of users to stop viewing official music videos. An undisclosed lump sum, lasting until 2012, will need to be paid to the songwriters’ group for the privilege.

The controversy began earlier this year when YouTube decided to block all premium music video content in Great Britain after PRS for Music demanded an increase in fees. YouTube perceived this increase to be too extreme and so decided to remove content whilst conducting intense and lengthy negotiations with a group created to protect the interests of songwriters and composers, many of whom earn very little money over the course of a year.

This latest installment in the row between the website and the PRS will be music to the ears of YouTube’s users but it is also great news for Google, who are looking to keep their name out the headlines for longer than five minutes. Controversy and Google seem to be going hand in hand in some quarters with critics accusing them of arrogance and bullying with regards to some of their latest moves in the technology world.

It would seem that Google needs all the positive PR it can generate at the moment, particularly in the wake of Amazon’s comments that the search giant’s plan to digitise millions of books is a “dangerous” prospect which could end up damaging future innovation and hindering copyright law. With Microsoft and Yahoo! both expected to lodge official complaints of a similar nature by the end of the week, Google’s move to make peace with a group of songwriters and composers is perhaps a tiny step in the right direction.