YouTube became hugely popular overnight, but if Nathan Weinberg is right, YouTube is going down the tube. Nathan recounts how his YouTube account got deleted, and why YouTube won’t last:
On March 15, my account was deleted, and all my videos were removed. The reason? A minute-long clip from the show 24, taken poorly with a digital camera, showing that Google Earth was being used in the show. If that doesn’t constitute fair use, I don’t know what is. YouTube deleted my account, because as a repeat offender, I clearly posed a danger to the world, and had to be stopped.
Why would a company like YouTube think that it was special enough to piss on its user-base?
As much as I hate to admit it, it looks like the copyfight is going to get a lot uglier before it gets better. It’s sad that in this Information Age people and organizations are working so hard to destroy the very fundamentals of the Internet. How long until there’s an Information Revolution, and what will it take to get there?
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:26 am
I agree. YouTube was once cool, but now there are way too many restrictions. Once the Lazy Sunday video got insanely popular NBC decided to jump in and demanded that any NBC affiliated clips be removed immediately. And now YouTube has a 10 minute length policy to “balance the rights of copyright owners with the rights of users”.
June 14th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Too bad Nathan Weinberg is wrong, YouTube will only get stronger and stronger.
October 26th, 2006 at 1:00 am
to bad he is right, youtube IS going down the drain.
April 13th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
anyone who thinks that youtube will last is sadly mistaken. i never uploaded youtube videos but i used to enjoy the website alot… i still go there to watch stuff but there is less and less stuff to watch 3 out of the 5 chanels i was subscribing got banned, well i guess it’s fine if google doesn’t mind throwing away a few billion dollars down the drain