casual friday { nothing casual

So I was going to post another great music video or funny post, something from my CubeZooTV channel on YouTube. However as of this morning >50% of my bookmarked videos are no longer available.

I also heard on the NPR that Viacom is suing Google for $1B (over half of what Google paid) over copyright infringement because they have to spend too much time and effort getting their IP removed from YouTube and that YouTube is not doing enough to prevent uploading (YouTube says in no uncertain terms you should not post if you don't own the rights, what else are they to do?). In addition, they argue, Google is getting increased ad revenue off of Viacom's IP. I'm not going to touch whether this is true, untrue, wrong or right, who has moral high ground, who wins, who loses (though I think we as consumers always tend to lose).

I was worried when YouTube was purchased by Google that stuff like this would start to happen. YouTube is/was an amazing place. Google has a pocketbook, which means it is a target.

I think when company's do actions like this it cuts people off from them. The smart companies and artists are realizing that people like to share things, especially music videos, and encourage the proliferation of their product/idea/music/creativeness. The old, archaic institution don't understand the new marketplace and instead their greed fuels them to do stupid things like sue their customers, or try to stifle competition.

In the heyday of Napster I thought something special and magical was going on, millions of people were sharing their music and their videos. It violated the old mindset of 'ownership' and companies who could not adapt and figure out a new ways to make money cried foul and thief and many other things and the world became a more disconnected place, a lesser place. Companies sue their customers, criminalize grandmas. Extort freely and sanctioned by draconian IP laws and DRM. Where now in the new legal framework of the old regime and mindset anyone who rips a CD to digital formats is a criminal.

The spirit of free exchange has been killed.

What happened to Napster will happen to YouTube.

But in every age, Renegades remain.




UPDATE: DeluTube allows you to view deleted YouTube videos, I guess they stay on the servers for a time: http://youtube.infamousx.com/

Viacom vs Google...the Daily Show perspective: