The Lawyers and Youtube

I noticed, going back to old posts, that many youtube links of music videos I had posted are no longer valid, due to copyright restrictions.

Now, I don't dispute the right of the respective record companies to ask for those videos to be removed from youtube, but I do find it puzzling. Why? Because almost all of those videos were created as promotional material designed to help sell records, and because the record companies allowed (and still allows) MTV to use them free of charge (i.e MTV doesn't have to pay residuals, etc...). The cost of making the videos has been amortized a long time ago.

You'd think that keeping a 20 year old video alive (eg B52's Deadbeat Club, for instance) would continue to keep the songs in peoples minds, resulting in record sales. They don't seem to get that this is free money and advertising for the record companies, because the records are essentially out of print, to use a publishing industry term.