YouTube, PRS sue for peace

Here come the songs again. PRS and YouTube have struck a deal - terms "undisclosed", so I'm betting they'll be leaked online by teatime - which will see YouTube paying for music, and thus videos returning to the UK site.

A spokesman for PRS for Music, formerly known as the Performing Rights Society, said: "It is a lump sum deal which seems to work for YouTube's business model and offers recompense for our 60,000 members. We can be friends again."

A spokesman for YouTube said the "tens of thousands" of videos which had disappeared "will come back over the next few days".

Given that YouTube hadn't exactly seen a dip in popularity since it threw off the videos into the face of an aghast PRS, it's likely that Google has moved less than the PRS would have done.

They're chucking a "lump sum" at the rights agency to cover everything from last January "and lasting until 2012". That doesn't sound very much like giving an increased per-play rate from where I'm sitting, which was what PRS had been demanding.