He also praised Simon Cowell’s You Generation brand, a YouTube-focused global talent show, and Disney for the way it encouraged fans of its film Frozen to post their own cover versions of its songs on YouTube. One by musician Alex Boyé has been watched more than 30m times.
“The studio could have very easily issued copyright claims against this video and any others and taken them down, but they made a different choice: a fan-friendly choice. They chose to let those videos stay,” said Carloss, suggesting that the buzz around Frozen on YouTube contributed to its strong performance at the box office.
“Creators everywhere can make the choice Disney did. Allow fans to pay tribute, and you will see the incredible benefits of their passion.”
YouTube’s global head of entertainment Alex Carloss on the new relationship between content creators and audiences.
There’s something to be written by someone smarter than me about the new relationship creators have to accept about ownership of their content these days. Being old and reactionary, I’m surprised to see the widespread acceptance of and eagerness towards the popularization of and monetizing of fan content that steals intellectual property from its owners online.
You own your work until others are “inspired” by it, it seems.