Why concerts aren't concerned about cell phone cameras

[Brent Bauman]

One issue that people seem to forget is that when an artist performs a song that they did not write (which includes almost every artist) they are licensing that performance from the copyright holder (presumably the writer or a music publisher). The license that they are operating under would include public performance rights but likely does not include the right to perform (and distribute) copies of that song on video or via the internet which would normally require a synchronization license.

As an artist I do not necessarily have the ability to grant that particular right to members of the public that are attending my concert.

Unfortunately in this imperfect world this issue falls into the ugly area of copyright laws. There is no lawyer in the world (that I am aware of) that would make more money if the copyright laws were fixed/clarified/streamlined so there is not really any impetus on their part to see the laws changed for the better. This is far more a question of an area of developing laws...

The result is... if you got ten copyright lawyers in a room and asked them a single copyright question you would likely get eleven different answers.

[tedanderson]

It probably depends on the environment too. I went to a secular concert a while back (very popular group) that was hosted at an outdoor venue. Nobody seemed to mind that people in the audience had camcorders and some of the footage ended up on Youtube. I guess they could get away with it being that none of it was studio/broadcast quality. And also considering that there was plenty of camera shaking and crappy audio, I doubt that the group could have proven damages in the event that they wanted to sue anyone who brought their cameras.