[jcranmer]

Copyright is designed for an industrial content creation context, and it does not have the flexibility it needs to avoid the absurd results it reaches as it's been extended outside of that context.

In this case, it's the same reason that $BLOCKBUSTER_FILM needs to license $HIT_POP_SONG as the montage or mood-setting music for part of their film. It's possible that there's a viable fair use defense in this case, but defending it would likely cost several orders of magnitude more than the lifetime revenue of the video, and to be frank, even the fair use defense ultimately seems weak to me.

[kevin_thibedeau]

YouTube doesn't have to engage in the absurdity at all. They have safe harbor protection. All they have to do is process DMCA takedowns in a timely manner rather that preemptively flagging content on behalf of powerful interests. They do the latter because they're in bed with the corporate media who provide content for their subscription services.