Youtube and Copyright

Youtube has recently begun tightening their copyright rules. The immediate effects have been the removal of the audio track of some videos and the taking down of movies, official music videos and even commercials (which actually serve their ultimate purpose by being reposted over and over again). The weirdest copyright-protection-measure as of yet is the removal of song covers done by the multitude of singers (or would-be-singers) in the youtube community. A song is usually covered because the cover-er actually likes it and wants to give it his own flavor and style. I’m sure that there’s no intent to steal any intangible property right. These online musicians don’t earn from such covers anyway. It’s just like when you go to a bar and see a band cover a song, it’s just that in this case, the platform is different and the audience base is way bigger. Moreover, appropriate credits are (more often than not) given to the original artist and the songwriters so this may even be considered as free promotions. Now, I wonder if they’re really intending to protect copyright or if they’re just very insecure and can’t bear to see comments such as “your version is waaaaay better than the original!!.”