YOUTUBE And Copyright Violations

I can’t argue that every artist, performer and producer does not have the right to control their work, image and intellectual property. Then came YOUTUBE breaking all the rules. They let people put up whatever video they please and merely provide free hosting. The villains if any there are just happen to be the posters of the material, not YOUTUBE.

There are a gaggle of lawyers waiting to gut YOUTUBE claiming they are the copyright abusers hoping to sue them out of existence. They want YOUTUBE to police what the public posts there. I say they should not have to. The lawyers can locate individual abusers like me and take me to court instead. YOUTUBE’s users are on the honor system!

I say take a deep breath, and try to first determine if this service is not simply helping the artists. There are so many artists that have fallen out of the spotlight and their work can’t be seen anywhere who have been reborn on YOUTUBE. The result a new marketplace has been found where they can sell their stuff.

I have a solution! Let the artists sell their CDs and DVD’s with any exhibition of their work. After I stole the Jack Webb clip I went out a bought a boxed set of Dragnet DVD’s to enjoy. Had I not seen the clip and discovered what a lost treasure it was, I would have never bought the DVDs.

Grabbing and posting local TV news clip with proper credit promotes that TV station’s news product. That’s international publicity that station can’t buy anywhere.

My hope is that the courts don’t hang YOUTUBE for what their users do. This is not the same as the Napster.com case. Thousands of users like me post original material that they create. Viva YOUTUBE!