MySpace is the latest battleground for Universal, one of the world's biggest music publishers. The company is upset that MySpace users can post copies of music videos on their MySpace pages. Universal wants a piece of the action. The firm has already arm-twisted YouTube into sharing ad revenue because of grainy music videos posted on the popular video site.
The content publishers have some grounds for trying to control distribution, but the music and entertainment industry has been so obstinately one-sided and spiteful in their approach (suing grandmothers without computers and young children, among other examples) that it is hard to take them seriously. The companies are now on a war footing to force equipment manufacturers to not only pay them for every digital recording device, but the firms also want draconian content controls on the machines that essentially take ownership away from the users of the music or the video.
There is a middle ground here, but the music industry and Federal lawmakers, who seem to care more about campaign contributions from the music industry than good and fair laws, are making things much worse. In the end, only the industry, with its attitude that all customers are crooks, will lose. We can get our content from other sources, and in fact, we already are.