Like selling satellite rights and audio rights, these days selling the rights of film’s trailers, teasers, song videos for digital platforms became another interesting game. And this game is turning dirtier due to the greed of those YouTube companies that buy content, which is, in fact, turning into a mafia.
You would have already noticed that many popular TV channels’ YouTube pages are not showing cinema related teasers and song content anymore. This is because, even if a 10-second clip from a teaser or song from a film is used with video on YouTube, immediately the company that bought Digital Rights is sending a copyright violation notice. And they are demanding huge money to go back on their copyright claim.
Same is the case with short films and spoofs, wherein some creative guys use a small video from a film song or use an audio song in the background. A short film with 1 lakh hits may fetch a revenue of 2500 rupees in long run, but just for using a 30-second clip, the Copyright owners are demanding 15,000 rupees nearly. This YouTube mafia is sure slowly crushing creative talents who want to make some good content on films.
Either the YouTube channel owners (TV channels and individual guys) have to pay these original copyright holders (even for a 10-second clip) or they have to remove the videos. If they don’t remove the video, then YouTube will shut down the channel after three such strikes.
In the wake of all these happenings, Tamil Producers Council president, hero Vishal, has urged all the producers to give teasers and song videos content to all the TV channels for free and to upload on YouTube as well. We have to see how Tamil producers will respond about this and if Telugu producers will also take a clue from it.