Thom Yorke compares YouTube to Nazi Germany

Thom Yorke has slammed YouTube - comparing the website to Nazi Germany.

The Radiohead frontman hit out at the site, on which people can watch music videos for free, claiming it has "seized control" of artists' music and insisting it draws comparisons to Adolf Hitler's dictatorship in the Second World War.

He said: "People continue to say that this is an era where music is free, cinema is free.

"It's not true. The creators of services make money - Google, YouTube. A huge amount of money, by trawling, like in the sea - they take everything there is. 'Oh, sorry, was that yours? Now it's ours. No, no, we're joking - it's still yours'.

"They've seized control of it - it's like what the Nazis did during the Second World War.

"Actually, it's like what everyone was doing during the war, even the English - stealing the art of other countries. What difference is there?"

The 47-year-old musician also blasted YouTube for complaining about AdBlocker, an app which allows people to skip adverts on the website, when he insists artists are being paid "laughable amounts" or not at all for their music.

He added to Italian newspaper La Repubblica: "The funny thing is that YouTube has said 'that's not fair'.

"You know? They say it's not fair - the people who put adverts in front of any piece of content, making a load of money, while artists don't get paid or are paid laughable amounts - and that seems fine to them. But if they don't get a profit out of it, it's not fair."