RIAA going after web karaoke performers

Performing a show to other people's music in front of a camera is trendy nowadays. The success of YouTube is mainly based on this trend, although different services have similar offers for a few years already. But web karaoke shows like Gary Brolsma's performance of "Dragostea din Tei" were the reason for the giant success of sites like Albinoblacksheep, Vimeo or Googleidol.

But in the beginning of June the RIAA started going after the creators of these web karaoke videos on YouTube. In most cases - probably meaning all cases - authoring and licensing rights were not settled, an agreement of the copyright owner did not exist.

The RIAA although formally probably right, seems to go the wrong way here. They're aiming at a very prosperous part of web culture. The lobbyists are still seeking for ways to make themselves extremely unpopular. But even more it must be highly doubted that their actions will do any good for those they represent with some web videos making unknown songs famous.