Thank god I recently uploaded all my clips into my Picassa online album (see link) otherwise I could have lost some irreplacable memorys that I had entrusted to Youtube.
But its not as if I was profitting off them. They were just funny to watch. This is a direct result of Youtube having been bought by Google. And Google have stopped being web friendly after the business boys came and offered them billions of dollars for a working stake. Now Google, whos moto is Do No Evil, are pandering to every request by the media companies and striking millions of clips from Youtube, or demanding royalties. Google recently agreed to do business in China, so have blocked millions of sites from its search engine at the Communist governments request. Dont think of going to look up Tianamen Square massacre from a server in China; you wont find it! Other dangerous websites, like BBC.co.uk are also blocked by Google. Lest the Chinese public reading that dangerous, un-censored site - the Beeb!
But it could be worse. They could do what Yahoo did, and give the IP address of a blogger who was un-flattering to the governement, to the Secuity Services. He was arrested and, as far as I know, has not been seen since. Ah, China in the year 2007!
But I digress. What ever I think of the business politics of Youtube, I cannot deny the cultural impact it has had on the world. The incredible pace the world is changing due to new technologies is something I have commented on before on my blog. The digital age has brought us new ways to communicate with the world, that would never have been conceivable before. Here are two videos I have watched recently. Both say an awful lot about the current world we live in. The first has been watched 5 million times and climbing in a week.
These are strange days indeed, dear reader :)
3 comments:
LOL. Got to admire that first guys total lack of self consciousness though. No chance in hell that I would put up a video being so emotional (especially as it is simple for anyone to download YT videos and make them appear on the evening news in 20 years when you run for a local council). YouTube policing is pretty screwed up generally. Videos showing and calling for violent Jihad against the west seem to be perfectly OK at times. But a comedy clip using scenes from Braveheart? Weeeel those are removed faster than a whippet on amphetamines. There is also a lot of bizzare thought policing going on there, with YouTube being lazy and giving the bickering masses a flag button (as Google does with Blogger) leading to mass flagging campaigns from groups who want to shut others up. One person I have watched for a while on there has probably had about six accounts now, after being chopped and coming back. Regarding copyright though, I guess they do warn us. As annoying and as petty as it is, we sign an agreement when we sign up that if copyright material is discovered (or reported), then we're history. Chinese are lucky though that the "great firewall of China" (as it has been called) is very weak and virtually every internet cafe owner there can pull out a proxy for people to view what they want. But it is still a dangerous game for them to play. Btw. Totally off topic. What browser do you use, Martin?
Hello there! :)
How very interesting to note that the Great Firewall is not that strong. Perhaps there is hope for the populace of China to get some un-biased information.
There have been recent reports of cyber attacks on US and UK computer sites from servers in The People Republic. But of course, they deny it.
And I use both Internet Expolorer put more often now, Firefox as a browser.
Great post, Martin. It is so sad what google got involved into. I hope they will be sorry one day.
Anyway I believe there is a day which is called (at least in Poland) Anti - google Day but I don't remember when it is. It was established right after Google decided to cooperate with chinese government. I will cheeck it and let you know.
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