The major record companies may have done deals with YouTube (well, three of them have), but deals are still to be done with much of the publishing sector, which may as yet throw a spanner in the works as the video sharing website moves towards its goal of hosting the world's biggest free-to-use video jukebox.
It was the Japanese publishing sector that forced YouTube to delete nearly 30,000 files off its system in one go on Friday. The move came after The Japan Society For Rights Of Authors, Composers And Publishers submitted a document to YouTube listing 29,549 videos that feature music owned by its members which the society say are being hosted illegally. YouTube, of course, have always vowed to remove any video if the content's owner requests that they do so. Though I'm pretty sure this is the first time one owner has asked for quite so much content to be removed in one go.
Speaking for the Society, Fumiyuki Asakura also said that they might ask YouTube to introduce some kind of screening process in the future to stop copyright clips from getting through in the first place. If such a request was made, and YouTube felt that they had to honour it, the video site would need to undergo a radical rethink regarding how its upload system works (although technology to spot low quality recordings of copyrighted material is, I believe, already installed). I'm guessing its owners would much rather reach licensing deals with the publishers (whether it be with the collecting societies or the publishing houses direct) before such demands are formally made.