After Google acquired YouTube the net-nerds (of which I am one) immediately began to predict its downfall. Why? Well, because before the acquisition YouTube didn’t really make any money, but after the Daddy Warbucks of the net acquired them? Geez, it was like an open invitation for lawsuits.
Look, we all understood that technically, we were breaking the law by uploading snippets of our favorite shows, but we continued to do so because: 1) it was fun; 2) it was fun. Aside from the legal technicality, I fail to see the downside for the owners of the content. If YouTube had allowed users to post a complete show then I would feel more sympathy for production companies, but the site only allowed you to post a maximum of ten minutes. Ten minutes is really only an extended commercial, and that’s how the owner’s of content should have viewed it.
Unfortunately, they didn’t. More precisely, the owners of The Daily Show didn’t, because as of last night YouTube pulled all Daily Show clips at the behest of TDS’ lawyers. Again, I know that technically it’s against the law to use copyright protected material in any way that the owner does not approve, but come on; they were getting good advertising out of it, and they were cementing their fanbase. For people to post those clips they have to watch the show, and therefore the vast number of Daily Show clips should have served as an excellent indication that they had a devoted and motivated fan base.
So no more YouTube on this site. Well, no more that I ripped and posted, anyway. If you subscribed to my YouTube channel I’m sorry, but I’m going to delete everything. I’m currently experimenting with several flash players for the site, which, if I could ever get the damn things configured correctly, would mean that I could simply host the material here.
Here’s to you, YouTube.
We hardly knew ya. C’est la vie”¦