It looks like YouTube's carefree existence might be coming to an end: Universal is starting to get torqued about their service:

Universal Music chief Doug Morris launched a loud salvo at YouTube, warning the upstart Internet firm that it could come into the legal crosshairs of the world's largest music company.

YouTube, the prolific swapper of videos online, consistently violates the music industry's copyrights when it allows users to post videos, Morris said in a speech at a Merrill Lynch conference in California.

Mind you, the clues aren't very thick at Universal - they think they lost money on MTV videos:

Morris related a frequent historical gripe often mentioned by music execs, saying the industry made a costly mistake in the 1980s when it agreed to give MTV free music videos. At the time, the industry saw the fledlging video trend as mere publicity to sell albums, rather than as a revenue generator itself.

"The poster child for this was MTV," Morris said. "Twenty-five years ago, they built a multibillion-dollar company on our software.

Yeah, no one ran out and bought a CD (at extortion prices, I might add) after seeing "Money for Nothing". Right. Does the elevator go all the way to the top over there?

I'm not condoning theft, but does anyone think that a video of someone lip synching to a song (recorded with poor quality) is something I want instead of a CD or an iTunes download?

Technorati Tags: law, YouTube