Universal Music claims it has a contract with Google to take down YouTube videos it doesn't own

WTF. Universal Music just revealed that they can take down videos on YouTube for reasons other than "copyright infringement".

Megaupload.com sued UMG for taking down the "Mega Upload Song" on YouTube for "copyright violation." UMG couldn't do this because UMG does not own the copyright to the song. will.i.am even said that he did not tell UMG to block the video. However UMG now says they can remove the video because they have a deal with Google that they can take down any video on YouTube that they don't like for any reason. Woah.

How shady is this? We must fight SOPA!

From boing boing:

Now, a court filing in the matter from Universal claims that the takedown wasn't issued because Universal claims a copyright in the Mega Song, but rather, they claim that they have a private contract with Google giving them the power to take down videos they dislike, regardless of whether they are the rightsholder.

Your letter could be read to suggest that UMG's rights to use the YouTube "Content Management System" with respect to certain user-posted videos are limited to instances in which UMG asserts a claim that a user-posted video contains material that infringes a UMG copyright. As you know, UMG's rights in this regard are not limited to copyright infringement, as set forth more completely in the March 31, 2009 Video License Agreement for UGC Video Service Providers, including without limitation Paragraphs 1(b) and 1(g) thereof.

No one knows what Paragraphs 1(b) and (g) say (except Googlers and Universal), but the letter excerpted above implies that Universal has some sort of special deal to arbitrarily remove stuff it doesn't like from YouTube, even if that stuff is legal.