1. There’s nothing “ironic” in the fact that Grisman would do this. Yes, the Dead allowed “tapers”, but there was ALWAYS a restriction imposed (if only an implicit one) — no commercial distribution, for example.)
The mechanism which allowed the Grateful Dead the opportunity to stipulate that restriction was — you guessed it — copyright.

2. Grisman has a point about the “smaller artists”. They should have a say over whether they want their stuff up on viral-video sites (which are, arguably, commercial enterprises backed by ad revenue and subscriptions.).
Youtube is NOT “noncommercial”, in the way that say, Internet Archive, is. There IS money changing hands, and at least a portion of that revenue is being generated as a result of unauthorized vids of smaller, “unsigned” artists. To ignore that fact, and essentially say “fuck ‘em”, while simultaneoulsy posturing as advocates for “creators” is …… let’s just say a tad sloppy.