A Curious Copyright Issue

If you spend any time on YouTube, you'll occasionally find a video with the audio disabled due to copyright issues. There is debate about whether the music industry has a right to restrict access in this specific context, but wherever you come down on the issue, this one is a little odd. Check out the red box.

For those not familiar with 4'33", the guy who posted this video, AdamLore, added an explanation.

The work, 4′33″ (pronounced Four minutes, thirty-three seconds or, as the composer himself referred to it, Four, thirty-three) is a three-movement composition by American avant-garde composer John Cage (19121992). It was composed in 1952 for any instrument (or combination of instruments), and the score instructs the performer not to play the instrument during the entire duration of the piece throughout the three movements (the first being thirty seconds, the second being two minutes and twenty-three seconds, and the third being one minute and forty seconds). Although commonly perceived as "four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence", the piece actually consists of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed. Over the years, 4′33″ became Cage's most famous and most controversial composition.

Sadly, he also admitted the notice was a joke.