YouTube and the preservation of artistic expression
Today various Japanese media companies forced YouTube to remove 29,549 videos from its archive because of its copyrighted disposition. Google, which recently attained YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars, will most certainly have to do this more frequently. In my reticent analytical judgment YouTube will be wrecked by judicature. In the first place, it will most probably be prosecuted endlessly and eventually lose some vital cases, resulting in the removing of all illegal/copyrighted material, forcing advertisers to draw back their initial interest.
When one browses the internet for a few minutes, it becomes obvious this opinion is shared by many. Yet, my interest concerns why Google decided to purchase YouTube. The multi billion company could easily have foreseen this to happen. If they would have left YouTube operating as they were before the take-over, YouTube would have been indicted just the same and would undoubtedly have lost, setting the grounds for GoogleVideo to rule the streaming commerce.
Why would Google take these envisaged hits? Did Google perhaps purchase YouTube with the intention to sink the ship? Is this calculated evilness? I recon it is. However, I don’t see it as immoral; if YouTube would have continued its path, which would have led to an inevitable destruction of the site, all material, including legal videos would be wiped from the internet. This would mean that a platform for talented artists to broadcast their creations would be gone, moreover an archive of art would be destroyed. Google envisaged this loss and therefore purchased it, with the purpose of conserving this affluent material under their existing brand: GoogleVideo.
If it wasn’t for Google, possibly we would have lost a monument, a library of artistic expression. I might sound disturbingly emotional at this point, however, I do believe we all profit from Google’s loss.
A short addition, our “very own” Campus TV is sueing Youtube too. Everybody wants a piece of the pie once it’s out of the oven! The story is here in Dutch: http://www.telegraaf.nl/i-mail/article51776641.ece?rss
Tom, any comments? ;)
as I understood (Tom, correct me if I’m wrong) they are sueing YouTube to gain publicity. They do not want to risk to take them to court, as it will most probably ruin them financialy. Their only benefit is media attention, and therewith more hits, leading to advertisers…
calculative tactics… everyone profits from youTube, one way or the other!
I thoroughly loathe today’s copyright society. It’s become a bleedin’ industry now, it has nothing to do anymore with intellectual property or the protection of the artist.
The next step would be a peer to peer like youtube, where the same content would appear on a decentralized network so the copyright gestapo would have no central entity to attack.
I sincerely wonder how much online sharing of various media has REALLY *cost* the artists themselves. The directors, the actors, the musicians. Aren’t they still getting insane amounts of revenue off their work? Do they really need to be protected so ferociously? YouTube has been running like this for 1.5 years – can anyone claim that “YouTube has ruined their financial life” ?
In the eloquent words of a random new yorker: get the fuck outta here.
[…] of Turkey) has made the site exceptionally attractive for early musicians. In previous posts (here and here) on this blog I have written about the promotion function of YouTube and its role as […]
[…] has made the site exceptionally attractive for early musicians. In previous posts on this blog (here and here) I have written about the promotion function of YouTube and its role as conservator of […]