Music promos are set to make a return to the internet after industry bosses agreed a deal with video sharing website YouTube.com.

Videos from artists including Madonna and Led Zeppelin were pulled from the site in a battle over copyright protection after record labels demanded royalties from the footage screened online.
But YouTube bosses have now reached an agreement with the Performing Rights Society which will see them pay a lump sum for the right to screen videos for the next three years.
However, the news comes as a fresh battle has broken out in the British music industry, after politicians announced plans to cut off internet users who persist with illegal downloads.

Record labels want to see offenders punished, but a group of artists including Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John teamed up to fight the proposals, forming the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) last year (08).

The organisation has now issued the U.K. government with a warning, urging politicians not to back the scheme. A statement from the group reads, “We vehemently oppose the proposals being made and suggest that the stick is now in danger of being way out of proportion to the carrot.

This is not a policy that any future-minded government should pursue.”

By rounak