Motherboard

It’s not really surprising at all: today Beyonce’s official YouTube channel is blocked in the US due to a copyright infringement issue with her own record label, Sony. Below a banner that reads “Congratulations for winning six Grammy Awards” – presumably from Sony, the video for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” has been replaced by this notice: “This video contains content from Sony Music Entertainment, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.”

It’s a hilarious reminder of the paranoid schizophrenic behavior of the fraught record industry, which wants to make every penny it can on every slice of copyrighted music and video online. (Read how Youtube works closely with these companies to shut down or make money off of copyrighted content, at Wired.)

The story is also a hilarious little side show to the big controversy over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, the international treaty over copyright protection that leaked this week.

If adopted under the current U.S. language, the agreement would for the first time on an international scale hold internet service providers responsible when customers download infringing material, unless those ISPs find another way of preventing "the unauthorized storage or transmission of materials protected by copyright or related rights.” And this constitution-flouting text holds out the holy grail for the film and music industry: the ability to shut down pirates’ and downloaders’ accounts or connections if caught transmitting copyrighted material three times.

In some ways, this laughable little Beyonce saga is reminiscent of Wilco’s fantastic adventure with Warner back the dawn of this century. How long will it take for Beyonce’s Youtube channel to come back on? More importantly, how long can it be before Sony starts suing single ladies for putting rings on it – or before Beyonce starts suing herself?