Existing copyright laws stymie development of performing arts

This issue about Youtube copyrights brings back all-time issues such as sampling.

Extract from what i wrote in to the Feedback Unit:

This is Irshad Salleh and i founded The AznBboy Network in 2002. We are an allstar collective of dancers, the voice of the regional breakdance community. http://aznbboy.tv

Recently i've seen quite a few videos taken down by record companies claiming to own part of the music featured in jams. But the thing is, they are abusing their copyright holder status, damaging the nascent breakdance scene. Music is one of the key elements in bboying, taking away the music is like playing a basketball match without a hoop.

Footage taken down includes unedited footage which happens to capture an audio track that the dj is playing, but I happened to get a claim on the clip :

Mahmud vs. Oneski battle footage (Youtube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyTehMWVH0w

This video has been identified as featuring Bob James-Farandole without necessary copyright authorization for use on the YouTube site. It is currently disabled.

Radikal Forze's 10th Year Anniversary jam trailer was also taken down.
(Funky Nassau)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jhr8q1711I

Most of these videos are coverage of events. It should be covered under Copyright Act Section 37 Fair dealing for purpose of reporting current events, but it seems that i've found out that companies are making boisterous claims. At first I didn't realize how widespread this problem is until notable people in the community started telling me about their videos being taken down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StU2LktIrsc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxcUkoxN3mo

My personal demo trailer and one of a friend. Dancers use clips like these to keep track of personal progress. I don't suppose they are supposed to produce the soundtrack from scratch if the main content in the clip is the dance? We can see that the video produced in Singapore, is not available in Singapore.

There seems to be no end to this. Perhaps the government can help.

Discuss the issue on our open forum here.