Universal Music Group has a long history of bringing lawsuits upon music and video sharing services (MySpace, Veoh and its investors, Grouper / Bolt.com, etc.), so it’s kind of surprising to see them link to a clip of one of their biggest artists, rapper and producer Eminem, which has not been authorized by its copyright holders (i.e. Universal Music themselves).

Update: the news item has been updated as a result of this coverage. Good thing we have a screenshot.

The link can be found on this January 7 news item on the UMG website about the ‘leaking’ of Eminem’s newest track, and leads to this YouTube clip posted by a regular YouTube user. In case you were wondering, Universal Music Group has an official channel on the video sharing site which does not feature a clip for this particular track yet.

Ironically, there is a notice from YouTube below the video stating that the video “contains an audio track that has not been authorized by all copyright holders”. Furthermore, the audio has been disabled as a result of YouTube’s new policy whereby audio that has not been authorized is simply stripped away from the video, effectively generating a ton of creepy, soundless music videos.

Way to encourage uploading copyrighted material without your consent, UMG!