I got this pleasant email today:

Dear marcoskirsch,

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a notification by Sony/BMG claiming that this material is infringing:

Fobia @ SXSW – No eres yo / El Diablo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGTxHhTH_IQ

Please Note: Accounts determined to be repeat infringers may be terminated. To avoid this, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading infringing videos. For more information, please visit our Copyright Tips guide.

If you believe this claim was made in error, or that you are otherwise authorized to use the content at issue, you may file a counter notice. Information about this process is here.

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

Sincerely,
The YouTube Content Identification Team

Please indulge me by reading my rant below:

I go to lots of concerts. And I buy concert t-shirts at outrageous prices. I have traveled just to see some concerts. And I actually buy music! With money!

And I think it’s neat to get a video of a song from a concert and post it here. These videos are recorded with a little tiny digital camera. The sound quality is atrocious. The videos are dark and shaky. Do you think any sane person in the world looks at my YouTube videos and goes: “Oh, this is great… I‘m not going to buy the CD anymore. Instead, I’m going to watch this little shaky dark video with atrociuos sound quality.”

Ladies and gentlemen… it’s retarded. The only thing I’m doing is showing how cool the concert I saw was and what a cool song they played. I’m blogging about it. I’m spreading the word for free!

If anything, the labels should pay me for the publicity. People searching and watching this videos are either

1. Fans
2. Interested in the band
3. Learning about them through this blog and these little videos.

The saddest thing is that the actual artists (not the labels) are probably thrilled that people blog about them. Except the Metallica guys, because they’re psychos. Want to see all my YouTube videos? Get them while you can.

End rant. Post your comments.