Google (GOOG ) and YouTube are dangling nine-figure sums in front of major programming and network players—that is, the Time Warners, News Corp (NWS )s, and NBC Universals of the world. Google calls these monies licensing fees, according to executives who've been involved in the discussions. But some of them characterize the subtext like this: Don't sue us over copyrights. Take this (substantial) payment, and trust us to figure out how we'll all make serious money once we get advertising and revenue sharing worked out.
Source: Business Week
Erm yes, or these big companies could just take a common sense approach and realise that a teenage girl miming to a chart hit does not really represent copyright infringement. I mean, who is really going to say to themselves, okay I don't need to buy such and such a single 'cos I've downloaded somebody miming to it in a YouTube video? No one, that's who. It's time someone hosed these companies down with a good doze of common sense.