[Archive 2009-09-03] Music videos return to UK version of YouTube after agreement with PRS

Historical archive — originally published 2009-09-03. This report records what was known on that date. It is not current news; subsequent events may have changed the situation. Wikinews closed in May 2026.

Google has reached an agreement with the United Kingdom's PRS, which represents songwriters and composers, over the use of their members' material on video sharing website YouTube.

In March of this year, thousands of videos were deleted from YouTube after negotiations with the PRS for Music over licensing had failed. Google has now resolved the long-running dispute over revenues by paying an undisclosed lump sum to PRS, which has been backdated until January 2009 and will last until June 2012.

YouTube's director of video partnerships, Patrick Walker, said that at the time PRS wanted too much money and that the site would lose money whenever someone played a video. Walker said the reason behind the earlier decision was that YouTube would not make enough profit from advertisers to pay for the licenses.

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