YouTube faces new DMCA enemy: Katy Perry and Deadmau5’s artist supergroup

Katy Perry is one of the most in-demand artists on YouTube.

The US star’s Vevo channel boasts 7.2bn views and 18.3m subscribers – putting it only behind Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Taylor Swift in terms of global popularity.

Yet Perry has added her signature to hundreds demanding a reform of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) in the US.

Other stars who have signed the petition, addressed to the US Copyright Office, include Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, DeadMau5, Garth Brooks, Jon Bon Jovi, Lionel Richie, Steven Tyler, T Bone Burnett, Pete Townshend and Elvis Costello.

It reads: “The Music Community’s list of frustrations with the DMCA is long. A broken ‘notice-and-takedown’ system. Toothless repeat infringer policies. Active services  mischaracterized as passive intermediaries. Incentives for services to embrace willful blindness instead of preventing known and widespread infringement…

“A vibrant and healthy future for the music ecosyStem depends on DCMA reform.”

Artist DMcA PEtition

“DMCA reform is essential to bring about balance. A vibrant and healthy future for the music ecosystem depends on it. Throughout these comments, we note various issues that should be addressed.”

The petition continues: “The DMCA was supposed to provide balance between service providers and content owners, but instead it provides harmful ‘safe havens’ under which many  platforms either pay nothing or pay less than market value for music.”

Although not solely targeted at YouTube, the Google-owned video giant – the biggest and fastest-growing music streaming service on the planet – is very much in the crosshairs here.

The artist-signed petition joins similar efforts from managers and songwriters – a full list of which you can read below – plus music industry players such as the RIAA, SESAC, ASCAP and BMI.

The DMCA was first introduced in 1998 in order to allow nascent digital services to thrive while simultaneously protecting creators’ rights.

Its “safe harbor” provisions required online services to implement policies to stop repeat copyright infringers and “expeditiously” respond to requests to “take down” pirated works.

“The current notice-and-takedown system was designed in an era characterized by hissing 56k dial-up connections.”

Managers’ Dmca Petition

Yet the music business argues that, with rights-holders forecast to send more than a billion takedown requests to Google alone this year, the DMCA safe harbors have ‘placed an impossible and one-sided burden’ on music creators.

As the managers’ petition argues: “The current notice-and-takedown system was designed in an era of Internet  connectivity characterized by screeching and hissing 56k dial-up connections. This  was a time when downloading or uploading a song took minutes or hours, there  were less than 2.5 million websites, and ‘user-generated content’ meant postings on  all-text bulletin boards.

“In that context, a system that required music creators to police the entire Internet and give individualized notice to service providers of each link to unlicensed music might have had at least some logic to it.

“But it makes no sense at all in an Internet ecosystem with gigabit connectivity and nearly a billion websites. No one can police that vastness – and anyone who tries to do so finds the universe online is growing faster than our ability to inspect it for illegal copies of our clients’ work.”

It adds: “We stand ready to work with Congress, the Copyright Office, and other stakeholders to  develop practical solutions to these issues and enact comprehensive DMCA reform.”

Three separate petitions have been put together by artists/songwriters, managers and ‘creators’.

Read them all, and see the household names who have signed them, below:


Artists/songwriters (Download the petition here)

  • Bryan Adams
  • Christina Aguilera
  • Saint Asonia
  • Estate of Count Basie
  • Tony Bennett
  • Eric Bent
  • Benny Blanco
  • Jon Bon Jovi
  • Black Veil Brides
  • Blue Oyster Cult
  • Danielle Brisebois
  • Garth Brooks
  • Neko Case
  • Kenny Chesney
  • Bootsy Collins
  • Chris Cornell
  • Sheryl Crow
  • Dave Matthews Band
  • deadmau5
  • Estate of Ronnie James
  • Dio
  • Carla Dirlikov
  • Kenny “Babyface”
  • Edmonds
  • Melissa Etheridge
  • Fifth Harmony
  • Mick Fleetwood
  • Estate of Judy Garland
  • Siedah Garrett
  • CeeLo Green
  • Don Henley
  • Billy Joel
  • Gabriel Kahane
  • Luke Laird
  • Amy Lee
  • Joanie Madden
  • Barry Manilow
  • Maroon 5
  • John Mayer
  • Shane McAnally
  • David Paich
  • Steve Miller
  • Pearl Jam
  • Katy Perry
  • Dianne Reeves
  • Haley Reinhart
  • Lionel Richie
  • Tom Scholz
  • JD Souther
  • Ronnie Spector
  • Rod Stewart
  • Bernie Taupin
  • The Ting Tings
  • Pete Townshend
  • Steven Tyler
  • Stone Temple Pilots
  • Jim Vallance
  • Kip Winger
  • Trisha Yearwood

Managers (Download the petition here)

  • Irving Azoff
  • Jeffrey Azoff
  • Jonathan Azu
  • Melinda Bell
  • Danny Bennett
  • Jordan Berliant
  • Blasko
  • Scott Borchetta
  • Coran Capshaw
  • Bradford Cobb
  • Brandon Creed
  • Kelly Curtis
  • Ansel Davis
  • Bob Doyle
  • JP Durant
  • Bruce Eskowitz
  • Jeffrey Evans
  • Jordan Feldstein
  • Rachel Flotard
  • Fletcher Foster
  • Mark Gillespie
  • Clint Higham
  • Steve Jensen
  • Kathy Kane
  • Garry Kief
  • Martin Kirkup
  • Kathy Kruse
  • Ron Laffitte
  • Rebecca Lambrecht
  • Jon Landau
  • Adam Leber
  • Ken Levitan
  • Susan Markheim
  • Michael McDonald
  • Larry Mestel
  • Jared Paul
  • Patrick Pocklington
  • Larry Rudolph
  • Bill Silva
  • John Silva
  • Damien Smith
  • Clarence Spalding
  • Amy Thomson
  • Lee Trink
  • Caron Veazy
  • Josh White
  • Dean Wilson

‘Creators’ (Download the petition here)

  • Zachary Alford
  • Duke Amayo
  • Stuart Argabright
  • Sebastian Aymanns
  • Eszter Balint
  • Shawn Banks
  • Vagabond Alexander
  • Beaumont
  • Noah Bellamy
  • Jay Bellerose
  • Angelo Bermudez
  • Michael Bisio
  • Jim Black
  • Marc Black
  • Michael Stephen Blake
  • Stuart Bogie
  • Karen Borca
  • Pavel Borodin
  • Joseph Bowie
  • Dougie Bowne
  • Michelle Branch
  • Angelo Branford
  • Steph Brown
  • Luqman Brown
  • Buffalo Brown
  • Guillermo Brown
  • Tine Bruhn
  • Jason Burger
  • David Burnett
  • T Bone Burnett
  • Daren Burns
  • Carter Burwell
  • Jeff Byrd
  • David Byrne
  • Marilyn Carino
  • Hayes Carll
  • Rosanne Cash
  • Michelle Casillas
  • Beth Nielsen Chapman
  • Keefus Ciancia
  • Vongole Cine
  • Ty Citerman
  • Jem Cohen
  • Steve Cole
  • CJ Martin Coleman
  • Jennifer Condos
  • Holly Conlan
  • David Conrad
  • Elizabeth Cook
  • Chauncey Cool
  • Elvis Costello
  • Kwame Coston
  • Sylvie Courvoisier
  • Michael Crevier
  • Eli Crews
  • Juli Crockett-Feldman
  • Connie Crothers
  • Chelsea Crowell
  • Rodney Crowell
  • Reid Cummings
  • Gabriel Cyr
  • Jack Dejohnette
  • Amy Denio
  • Daniel Louis D’Errico
  • Jack DeSalvo
  • Jon Diaz
  • Marigrace Dineen
  • John Doe
  • Mike Doughty
  • Luke DuBois
  • Trevor Dunn
  • Vince Ector
  • Alexandra Eden
  • Count Eldridge
  • Avram Fefer
  • Mark Feldman
  • Ben Fields
  • Jeff Formosa
  • Fast Forward
  • Erik Friedlander
  • Gary Fritz
  • Jonny Fritz
  • Reed Fuchs
  • Jason Furlow
  • Mary Gauthier
  • Brian Gempp
  • Melvin Gibbs
  • Lauren Gilbert
  • Amy Grant
  • Leon Gruenbaum
  • Sohrab Habibion
  • Matthew Hager
  • Emmylou Harris
  • Jerome Harris
  • Jesse Harris
  • Emerson Hart
  • Chris Haskett
  • David Henderson
  • Paula Henderson
  • Matte Henderson
  • Rich Hinman
  • Mary Ho
  • Amy Holland
  • Steve Holtje
  • Yuka Honda
  • William Hooker
  • Andrew Horowitz
  • Percy Howard
  • Fen Ikner
  • Gintas Janusonis
  • George Johnson
  • Kyle Jones
  • Waberi Jordan
  • Terrence Kane
  • Lenny Kaye
  • Ray Kennedy
  • Shiobhan Kennedy
  • Dan Knobler
  • Frederic Koella
  • Briggan Krauss
  • Jim Kweskin
  • Sohrab Saadat
  • Ladjevardi
  • Andrew Lamb
  • Patrick Laplan
  • Ingrid Laubrock
  • Jim Lauderdale
  • Erik Lawrence
  • Gregory Leisz
  • Tessa Lena
  • Sean Ono Lennon
  • John Leventhal
  • Neil Levine
  • Denise Lewis
  • Terry Lewis
  • Edward JT Lewis
  • James Lewis
  • Tony Lewis
  • Colin Linden
  • Jake Luck
  • Jessica Lurie
  • Matt Lutz
  • Bernard Lyons
  • Michael Lytle
  • Al Mack
  • Rousseau Mannan
  • Sarah Manning
  • George Marich
  • Ed Marshall
  • Billy Martin
  • Jorge Arévalo Mateus
  • Kathy Mattea
  • Grant McClintock
  • John McCrea
  • Michael McDonald
  • Billy McNicol
  • Christian Mendoza
  • Tift Merrit
  • Raz Mesinai
  • Mike Michel
  • Tom Middleton
  • Bette Midler
  • Dom Minasi
  • Dominic Missana
  • Russell Mofsky
  • Matthew Montfort
  • Meg Montgomery
  • Kristin Mooney
  • Carman Moore
  • Daniel Martin Moore
  • Allison Moorer
  • Jason Moran
  • Ikue Mori
  • Sarah Jane Morris
  • Stephen Moses
  • Carly Mostar
  • John Mulkerin
  • Daniel Murphy
  • Frank Murphy
  • Ian Naismith
  • Jay Nash
  • Luke Nicholson
  • Colm O’Herlihy
  • Mendi Obadike
  • Keith Obadike
  • Kevin Olsen
  • Bryan Ownings
  • Gioele Pagliaccia
  • Roderick B. Palmer
  • Jeff Parker
  • William Parker
  • Glenn Patscha
  • Kenneth Pattengale
  • Chase Patterson
  • John C. Peebles
  • Ben Perowsky
  • Johnathan Phillips
  • David Piltch
  • David Poe
  • Joseph Allen Popp
  • Mike Pride
  • John Prine
  • Jim Pugliese
  • Cheryl Pyle
  • Amy Raasch
  • Tom G. Rainey
  • Bonnie Raitt
  • Paul Steven Ray
  • Rob Reddy
  • Vernon Reid
  • Marc Ribot
  • Matt Richards
  • Gyan Riley
  • Arturo Artie Rodriguez
  • Joseph Rodriguez
  • M Kumasi Rogers
  • Adrian Romero
  • Johnny Rosado
  • Marina Rosenfeld
  • Brandon K. Ross
  • Ned Rothenberg
  • Adam Rudolph
  • Chris Ruen
  • Raymond Russell
  • Jared Samuel
  • Dan Schwartz
  • Kliph Scurlock
  • Dave Sewelson
  • Al Sgro
  • Jamshied Sharifi
  • Michael J. Shipman
  • Michelle Shocked
  • Jen Shyu
  • Devan Skaggs
  • Dunia Best Sinnreich
  • Harrison Sokoloff
  • Tim Sterling
  • Mark P. Stewart
  • Tay Strathairn
  • David Torn
  • Gene Torres
  • Anderson Trindade
  • Bryan Vargas
  • Charles Allen Veatch IV
  • V Ness Verdad
  • James Elijah Vialpando
  • Jade Vincent
  • Chris Wagner
  • Ed Ward
  • Jair-Rohm Parker Wells
  • Doug Wieseln
  • Amanda Williams
  • Kenny Wollesen
  • Allen Won
  • Amir Ziv
  • John Zorn

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