YouTube star Michelle Phan sued over copyright breach

A leading YouTube entrepreneur is facing legal action for alleged copyright infringement in her videos.

Michelle Phan, a leading Youtube entrepreneur, is being sued by Ultra Records which has musicians Kaskade, deadmau5 and Calvin Harris on its books. The publishing arm of the label has claimed that she illegally made use of approximately 50 of their songs in her videos as well as on her website and this was entirely done without their consent and knowledge. However, the situation has become quite complicated as well as confusing as one of those artists is not objecting to what Phan did and has stated that he is going to side with her on this. Kaskade, whose work features most prominently in the record label’s complaint, said: “Copyright law is a dinosaur, ill-suited for the landscape of today’s media.”

He tweeted about his disappointment on the fact that his own record label was getting involved in this suing business with Ms Phan as he wrote “And the kicker… they’re citing her using my songs for the suit. Come. On.” Kaskade;s work has always been highly appreciated and last year he was also one of the nominees for a Grammy award. Though he has expressed his displeasure in this act, he says that there is nothing that he can do to stop this. Ms. Phan was quite pleased to have him on her side and thanked him with a little note saying “Your music inspired not just myself, but millions of my followers to dance and dream on.”

Michelle Phan’s presence on Youtube started from back in 2007 when she made her own channel and started posting videos related to make-up tutorials which ultimately attracted six million subscribers. She has now become one of those Youtube stars whose popularity is gaining momentum just as it would for any pop star. We can see this from the fact that her Barbie Transformation Tutorial video has received more than 50 million views and another one which shows how to reproduce Lady Gaga’s look has been watched more than 45 million times.

The court documents which have been filed in a court of California state the label and its associated publisher, Ultra International Music Publishing LLC has accused Ms. Phan of making money from advertising attached to her YouTube channel and website. It is also being claimed by the label that she “has been featured in a high-profile and multi-platform advertising campaign for YouTube, which features some of YouTube’s most popular personalities”. While referring to the content of the claim, the label said that it “includes nearly 50 examples of blatant copyright infringement, plaintiffs’ analysis is still preliminary, and the full extent of [Ms] Phan’s infringement has not yet been determined”.

source: bbc

Summary: I’m not suing @MichellePhan + @ultrarecords isn’t my lapdog. I can’t do much about the lawsuit except voice support for her.— Kaskade (@kaskade) July 19, 2014

I wrote that all of one month ago. Copyright law is a dinosaur, ill-suited for the landscape of today’s media.— Kaskade (@kaskade) July 19, 2014