Marsha Blackburn: “Here is the problem: the DMCA safe harbor provision. What this does, YouTube has created a platform where anyone with a…”

“Here is the problem: the DMCA safe harbor provision. What this does, YouTube has created a platform where anyone with a smartphone can access nearly any song ever recorded. Often this content is infringed, and it does not--does not--compensate the artist who created it. The safe harbor provision immunizes YouTube from claims of copyright infringement if it removes the infringing content in a timely fashion after YouTube has been notified by an artist or a record company. With millions of songs on YouTube, it is really impossible. Grammy-winning jazz/classical composer Maria Schneider has said the following about the DMCA: ``The DMCA makes it my responsibility to police the entire Internet on a daily basis. As fast as I take my music down, it reappears again on the same site like an endless Whac-A-Mole game.'' This not only threatens the vitality of songwriters but the economic contributions they make in our communities. Take my home area in Tennessee. A 2012 study shows that in Nashville itself the music industry is a $5.5 billion asset to the economy. Looking at the entire middle Tennessee region, it is $9.7 billion. This is a fundamental American principle. If you make something, if you create something, it belongs to you. In no other walk of life do we allow people to steal the work of others and turn a blind eye, except when it comes to songwriters and entertainers.…”