YouTube Has Little Ground To Stand On

~~andrew.lvp~~ · 05-23-2007, 11:35 PM

-Written by Andrew Chau

After doing some research and discussion, I have concluded with an interesting summary. "How has youtube.com become so great and successful in such a short time?"

Did a genius come up with some perfectly generated coding?
No.
Do we just have the obsession of continuously watching short videos in a convenient way?
No.

Youtube's major worldwide success is created by 2 attributes.

The first attribute is the ease of using their web hosting and bandwidth. As many of you know, each video uploaded onto Youtube is enabled to be published on another site with the HTML code given. Who needs to buy bandwidth anymore? Although they limit you to upload files up to 100MB, most of you know that a simple split would do the job. A whole movie can been instantly uploaded into 8 parts, and shown on a personal site.

The second part is of course is the copyrighted material on the site. To almost every users, Youtube is just a place to listen to music and watch videos. But how many of these videos are actually homemade/personal videos? Not a lot. All the way from when Youtube was first created (February 2005), copyrighted material has never stopped being uploaded, or no one has stopped them until recently. Clients can just add a whole list of their favourite music and listen to them everyday without having to purchase or download them. For competent users, it is very easy to rip off the actual video and have a collection of the music/video on your computer.

One and a half years ago when I first registered on Youtube (December 2005), I asked several of my mates if it would ever be sued from all those copyrighted infringements. After all, it's pretty much what makes up most of Youtube. One of them told me it would be like "chasing a fly with a bazooka". As you all know, he was wrong. Youtube has been sued more and more in the past few months. Just recently, they were sued for 1 billion US dollars by the English Premier League (England's top football league). This is also the reason why my Youtube account has been permanently disabled (I had 40 football videos uploaded previously).

Back to the point, you can very much predict that every copyrighted material will be tackled and told to be removed. For Youtube, it will not at all be an easy thing. They will be forced to go after every single bit which would be expensive and time burning. This includes removing videos which people put music on the background. As a matter of fact, Iran, Turkey and Thailand have all blocked Youtube partially due to these copyright infringements. Companies including the well known British Broadcasting Corporation has instantly demanded Youtube to take down over 200,000 videos. How are Youtube going to pay for those bandwidth bills then?

If someone alien to Youtube asked me what it is, I would say "never heard of it". There is no point to lead someone in adapting to a site where you know it is declining dramatically. Go see Daily Motion or something.

Another point I would like to make is that Youtube is really a way of p2p. p2p which was so much more commonly used years ago was just like Youtube. The copyright and piracy took it out of favour although many still use it today. But the thing is, Youtube is much more vulnerable than p2p. p2p works with clients creating a bridge to transfer data in the specific content. Youtube is just one station with copyrighted videos everywhere to detach. That is another point to why I think Youtube will fall more and more rapidly. As a matter of fact, it has already past it's peak. Just don't get your hopes too high with all the fuss they make about "improving" the site. All that has changed from when I first used it is the increased amount of advertisements.

Fill free to leave your comments or send me a PM.

Zazula · 05-24-2007, 12:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrew.lvp

As a matter of fact, Turkey has blocked Youtube partially due to these copyright infringements.

It was a different issue: http://www.techsupportforum.com/conv...ing-video.html

barbh · 03-04-2008, 09:14 PM

I've been puzzled about why I can no longer upload slideshows I make with music off my CDs to Youtube, when I was able to do it in the past with no trouble. They don't explain that, they only give the message that they were "unable to convert video". So, I go crazy trying to figure out what I've done differently than before. Do you think they're just avoiding copyright issues by automatically denying my uploads? Only one slideshow has been accepted lately, and it has no music at all. Also, I made one of a family trip using PhotoStory 3's built-in music, and it wasn't accepted, either. I'd really like to know what's the answer. thanks!

**carsey** · 03-05-2008, 01:51 AM

Thing is, i bet that there is a quote or line in their T & C's when you first register they are not legally responsible for copyright infringements.

**Jack.Sparrow** · 03-05-2008, 02:26 AM

Quote:

YOU SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOUTUBE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR USER SUBMISSIONS OR THE DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE, OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY AND THAT THE RISK OF HARM OR DAMAGE FROM THE FOREGOING RESTS ENTIRELY WITH YOU.

Quote:

F. YouTube does not endorse any User Submission or any opinion, recommendation, or advice expressed therein, and YouTube expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection with User Submissions. YouTube does not permit copyright infringing activities and infringement of intellectual property rights on its Website, and YouTube will remove all Content and User Submissions if properly notified that such Content or User Submission infringes on another's intellectual property rights. YouTube reserves the right to remove Content and User Submissions without prior notice.

Taken from http://www.youtube.com/t/terms

I guess they've tried to cover their backs.

barbh · 03-05-2008, 09:08 AM

Thank you all for you input. I think you're correct that Youtube is covering itself in case of a lawsuit. Some background that makes me think this: I used to have a Myspace account that would let me upload all my videos, where youtube sometimes would "fail to convert files." I had made two videos using my pictures and Van Morrison songs. Coincidentally, one day a friend told me that the Van Morrison record company was going after all videos on youtube and deleting them. Shortly after that, I was notfied that my uploading privileges were suspended from Myspace. The only video they had deleted was a Van Morrison. Stupidly, I left the other video up on there, and in time, they deleted that one and canceled my account completely. It was during this time that I started being unable to put anything on youtube except one video with no music. I think Myspace notified youtube. Youtube has an option called "video ID" where you can check on whether they have determined that you are using copyright material. They show that I am clean on all my videos. They must be copyrighted, since they are off popular CD's so it suggests that those record companies are just not bothering to complain right now. What about this theory? It still doesn't explain why YOutube was "unable to convert files" before the Morrison flap. Curious. It seems like a small thing, but it bugs me that I don't know for sure.

05-23-2007, 11:35 PM	#1 (permalink)
~~andrew.lvp~~ Troubled Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Hong Kong Posts: 124 OS: Vista Home Premium + XP Professional My System	YouTube Has Little Ground To Stand On -Written by Andrew Chau After doing some research and discussion, I have concluded with an interesting summary. "How has youtube.com become so great and successful in such a short time?" Did a genius come up with some perfectly generated coding? No. Do we just have the obsession of continuously watching short videos in a convenient way? No. Youtube's major worldwide success is created by 2 attributes. The first attribute is the ease of using their web hosting and bandwidth. As many of you know, each video uploaded onto Youtube is enabled to be published on another site with the HTML code given. Who needs to buy bandwidth anymore? Although they limit you to upload files up to 100MB, most of you know that a simple split would do the job. A whole movie can been instantly uploaded into 8 parts, and shown on a personal site. The second part is of course is the copyrighted material on the site. To almost every users, Youtube is just a place to listen to music and watch videos. But how many of these videos are actually homemade/personal videos? Not a lot. All the way from when Youtube was first created (February 2005), copyrighted material has never stopped being uploaded, or no one has stopped them until recently. Clients can just add a whole list of their favourite music and listen to them everyday without having to purchase or download them. For competent users, it is very easy to rip off the actual video and have a collection of the music/video on your computer. One and a half years ago when I first registered on Youtube (December 2005), I asked several of my mates if it would ever be sued from all those copyrighted infringements. After all, it's pretty much what makes up most of Youtube. One of them told me it would be like "chasing a fly with a bazooka". As you all know, he was wrong. Youtube has been sued more and more in the past few months. Just recently, they were sued for 1 billion US dollars by the English Premier League (England's top football league). This is also the reason why my Youtube account has been permanently disabled (I had 40 football videos uploaded previously). Back to the point, you can very much predict that every copyrighted material will be tackled and told to be removed. For Youtube, it will not at all be an easy thing. They will be forced to go after every single bit which would be expensive and time burning. This includes removing videos which people put music on the background. As a matter of fact, Iran, Turkey and Thailand have all blocked Youtube partially due to these copyright infringements. Companies including the well known British Broadcasting Corporation has instantly demanded Youtube to take down over 200,000 videos. How are Youtube going to pay for those bandwidth bills then? If someone alien to Youtube asked me what it is, I would say "never heard of it". There is no point to lead someone in adapting to a site where you know it is declining dramatically. Go see Daily Motion or something. Another point I would like to make is that Youtube is really a way of p2p. p2p which was so much more commonly used years ago was just like Youtube. The copyright and piracy took it out of favour although many still use it today. But the thing is, Youtube is much more vulnerable than p2p. p2p works with clients creating a bridge to transfer data in the specific content. Youtube is just one station with copyrighted videos everywhere to detach. That is another point to why I think Youtube will fall more and more rapidly. As a matter of fact, it has already past it's peak. Just don't get your hopes too high with all the fuss they make about "improving" the site. All that has changed from when I first used it is the increased amount of advertisements. Fill free to leave your comments or send me a PM. Last edited by Zazula; 05-24-2007 at 12:43 AM. Reason: removed email address to protect member from spamming

03-04-2008, 09:14 PM	#3 (permalink)
barbh Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 2 OS: xp,sp2	Re: YouTube Has Little Ground To Stand On I've been puzzled about why I can no longer upload slideshows I make with music off my CDs to Youtube, when I was able to do it in the past with no trouble. They don't explain that, they only give the message that they were "unable to convert video". So, I go crazy trying to figure out what I've done differently than before. Do you think they're just avoiding copyright issues by automatically denying my uploads? Only one slideshow has been accepted lately, and it has no music at all. Also, I made one of a family trip using PhotoStory 3's built-in music, and it wasn't accepted, either. I'd really like to know what's the answer. thanks! Last edited by barbh; 03-04-2008 at 09:17 PM.

03-05-2008, 01:51 AM	#4 (permalink)
carsey Moderator, TSF Articles Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Hunwick, Co. Durham England Posts: 10,693 OS: XP Pro SP3 My System	Re: YouTube Has Little Ground To Stand On Thing is, i bet that there is a quote or line in their T & C's when you first register they are not legally responsible for copyright infringements. __________________ Submit New Articles Here

03-05-2008, 09:08 AM	#6 (permalink)
barbh Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 2 OS: xp,sp2	Re: YouTube Has Little Ground To Stand On Thank you all for you input. I think you're correct that Youtube is covering itself in case of a lawsuit. Some background that makes me think this: I used to have a Myspace account that would let me upload all my videos, where youtube sometimes would "fail to convert files." I had made two videos using my pictures and Van Morrison songs. Coincidentally, one day a friend told me that the Van Morrison record company was going after all videos on youtube and deleting them. Shortly after that, I was notfied that my uploading privileges were suspended from Myspace. The only video they had deleted was a Van Morrison. Stupidly, I left the other video up on there, and in time, they deleted that one and canceled my account completely. It was during this time that I started being unable to put anything on youtube except one video with no music. I think Myspace notified youtube. Youtube has an option called "video ID" where you can check on whether they have determined that you are using copyright material. They show that I am clean on all my videos. They must be copyrighted, since they are off popular CD's so it suggests that those record companies are just not bothering to complain right now. What about this theory? It still doesn't explain why YOutube was "unable to convert files" before the Morrison flap. Curious. It seems like a small thing, but it bugs me that I don't know for sure.