经济学人下载:遭版权方起诉?YouTube示范如何规避雷区

Business: YouTube and copyright Free and easy listening
商业：YouTube涉及版权问题，免费自在地听音乐

The music industry lobbies Congress to keep YouTube at bay.
音乐产业游说国会远离YouTube.

IN LOVE or in business, it is not a good idea to be on the wrong side of Taylor Swift.
无论从个人喜好还是从经营商业的角度，与泰勒·斯威夫特对着干都不是一个好主意。

She has slated ex-boyfriends in her songs.
毕竟她经常用歌曲抨击她的前任男友。

And last year she publicly criticised Apple Music’s plan not to pay artists during the streaming service’s launch period. Apple quickly relented.
去年，她公开批评苹果音乐在流媒体服务发布期间没有向音乐人支付费用的行为。苹果公司很快就举手投降。

Now Ms Swift has joined nearly 200 musicians and record labels in a campaign aimed at the largest streaming service, YouTube.
如今斯威夫特加入一个由将近200名音乐人和唱片公司发起的运动，该项运动直指最大的流媒体服务商YouTube。

They complain that it gives away too much of their work for free.
他们抱怨YouTube 免费发布太多他们的作品。

Their call for a change in copyright law is sure to fail, but the underlying gripe with Google’s streaming service will find sympathetic ears.
尽管他们要求版权法做出改变的提议注定失败，但是对于谷歌流媒体服务的潜在抱怨还是引起人们的同情。

Streaming of music via on-demand video services more than doubled in America last year, to 172.4 billion songs, according to Nielsen, a research firm.
根据一家名叫尼尔森公司的调查显示，去年在美国通过视频点播服务产生的流媒体音乐超过了原有的两倍，达到1724亿首歌曲。

Ms Swift, Sir Paul McCartney, U2 and others signed a letter, published in several Washington periodicals on June 20th, asking Congress to make it more difficult and costly for those streaming services to host versions of songs uploaded by users.
6月20日华盛顿斯的几家期刊登出斯威夫特，保罗·麦卡特尼，U2和其他音乐人的联名信。信上要求国会将流媒体服务和用户下载大量版本的歌曲变得更加困难和昂贵。

Google and Facebook, among others, will vigorously oppose any change to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which grants them “safe harbour” from liability for copyright infringement.
在反对数字千年著作权法案做出任何改变的互联网公司中，谷歌和脸书的反对最为强烈，因为该法案是使他们不用承担版权侵权的“安全港湾”。

A more realistic goal for the music industry is to persuade YouTube to pay more for playing their songs.
音乐公司的一个更加现实的目标就是说服YouTube 在播放他们的歌曲时支付更多的费用。

The service is the leading destination for on-demand music but a small source of revenue.
这种服务是在线点播音乐的主要目的，但却是收益来源的很小一部分。

IFPI, a trade body, reckons that 900m people used ad-supported user-upload services such as YouTube to listen to music last year, but that the industry got only $634m from those streams.
一家名为IFPI的贸易实体估算出去年有9亿人使用YouTube这种有广告支持的用户上传流媒体服务听音乐。但是音乐公司仅仅从这些流媒体中获得6.34亿美元。

Subscription-based services, including Spotify, paid $2.3 billion to musicians in 2015.
订阅服务，包括Spotify在2015年向音乐人支付了23亿美元。

YouTube executives argue that they are creating a new source of revenue for the industry, even if it seems small now.
YouTube的执行官则认为他们正在为音乐产业创造新的收益来源，即使它现在看上去数额较小。

Many of those free-riders are unlikely ever to pay for a subscription service, they suggest.
他们认为很多这些免费下载音乐的用户永远都不可能去为订阅服务而付费。

A popular user-uploaded video promotes the original work and generates ad revenue for the industry.
一家非常受欢迎的用户上传视频网站促进了原创作品的产生并且为音乐产业创造了收入。

YouTube can take down such videos, but the company notes that labels and publishers usually want to make what money they can from them.
YouTube可以下架用户上传的侵权视频，但是YouTube也指出唱片公司和出版商经常想尽办法从他们身上捞油水。

Music executives might warm to these arguments if YouTube comes up with more cash for them.
如果YouTube 能够想到给音乐公司的执行官更多现金，音乐执行官们可能会同情这些论调。

That is not out of the question.
这也不是不可能的事情。

Analysts reckon YouTube collected up to $9 billion in advertising revenue in 2015, some $5 billion of which would have been due to content creators and rights-holders.
分析家估计YouTube2015年广告的收入已经达到了90亿美元，这其中的50亿美元是来自内容创造者和版权所有者。

Those figures could double or even triple by 2020.
这些数据到2020年可能翻两倍甚至三倍。

By then YouTube might be making money.
到那时候YouTube才可能会赚钱。

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, does not break out YouTube’s results but it is widely reckoned to make a loss.
谷歌的母公司Alphabet没有透露YouTube的营收情况，但YouTube被公认为是亏损的。

Three big record labels—Universal Music Group, Warner Music and Sony Music Entertainment—are negotiating new deals with YouTube that they hope will lead to a bigger slice of the pie.
三家大型唱片公司——环球唱片，华纳唱片和索尼音乐娱乐公司正在与YouTube协商新的方案，他们的希望将指向分得更高的份额。

Some music publishers will seek new terms soon, too.
一些音乐出版商也会立即开始寻求新的条款。

Their lobbying may not sway Congress, even with Ms Swift’s help.
他们的游说可能不会使国会动摇，即使有斯威夫特的帮助。

But it does not hurt to have the singer on their side of the bargaining table.
但是将歌手拉到他们的阵营倒也无妨。